Exam board adds plays by writers of colour to GCSE and A Level Drama

AQA, the UK’s biggest exam board, is adding four new plays by writers from ethnic minority backgrounds to its courses. 

From September, The Great Wave by Francis Turnly and The Empress by Tanika Gupta will be on the AQA GCSE Drama syllabus, and The Convert by Danai Gurira and Three Sisters by Inua Ellams will be options on the A Level Drama syllabus. 

To help drama teachers introduce the new plays, AQA is also providing a range of resources including background information and specimen questions. 

There will also be free online training events to introduce the new texts and give teachers a practical toolkit for preparation and teaching, in collaboration with mezze eade and Romana Flello of the London Theatre Consortium. 

These changes are part of AQA’s aim to broaden and diversify its repertoire. In addition to the plays, the stage adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses has featured on the GCSE course since it launched in 2016. 

The exam board has also established an equality, diversity and inclusion expert group to consider representation in the curriculum and assessment. 

Sandra Allan, AQA’s head of curriculum for Creative Arts, said: ‘We’ve chosen these plays because of the rich opportunities they’ll offer our teachers and students to explore a diverse range of themes including race and social issues.

‘However, we know that just adding new plays won’t bring about greater diversity in the curriculum by itself, so we can’t stop there – we need to make it as easy as possible for schools to start teaching these plays.

‘That’s why we’re providing lots of new support and resources and we really hope teachers and students will enjoy these new additions to our drama qualifications.’

These resources will be ready for first teaching in September 2022. You can find more details on AQA’s website: www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/drama