** Since this blog was published we have added new information for English teachers **

We are currently developing exciting new GCSE content for English literature, which will be added to our KS4 schools package in September. Amid calls for the National Curriculum to be updated and diversified, our team of content writers are hard at work creating questions for a range of brilliant books, plays and poems, which we hope will inspire schools to offer more texts by BAME authors. Increasing cultural diversity in the curriculum is a vital way to tackle issues of race and inequality in schools and in the country as a whole.

Here at Tassomai, we welcome the proposed updates to the curriculum, but until these can be approved and made available in schools, we are hoping to support teachers who want to teach more of the diverse texts already available on the syllabus.

We have recently expanded our English content writing team, which means we are able to extend the list of texts we will offer. We are starting with Meera Syal’s Anita and Me, a comedy tackling the issues faced by a family of Indian immigrants settling in the UK. We will also strive to include such diverse texts as Malory Blackman’s Boys Don’t Cry, Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy, Jamila Gavin's Coram Boy and Tanika Gupta’s The Empress. At present, these texts are among the least studied in schools across the UK, as more ‘traditional’ white-centred texts tend to have a greater body of resources surrounding them. 

It is our hope that teachers will be more likely to choose a lesser known, but equally important, text (like those listed above) if they know that they have the added support of Tassomai. 

These books and plays will be offered alongside a wide range of texts from Shakespeare to 19th century novels and Modern plays to poetry. Where ‘Modern’ in this context refers to the time period of publication, we think there’s a great opportunity to focus on the modern issues of our society through this more diverse list and make the study of literature more relevant for the current generation of students in the UK. 

If you are a teacher who would like to offer one of these texts, but are concerned that it hasn’t been taught in your school before, then the added support of Tassomai will provide a great framework to help you.

Highlighting the work of BAME authors is incredibly important to Tassomai and we look forward to a time in the near future when there will be greater representation in the National Curriculum. In the meantime, we are proud to be able to support teachers in fostering an atmosphere of diversity and inclusivity in their classrooms through the use of our new English literature content. 

Learn more about Tassomai’s new KS4 maths and English literature content and register for updates here.