English Language and English Literature are separate GCSEs with different entries, boards and resit rules — see what each figure you're shown actually measures.
Book a Free ConsultationGCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature are two separate qualifications, not one "GCSE English" — different exam papers, different specification codes and different entries. Nationally, there were 825,940 entries for English Language in summer 2025 against 614,800 for Literature, a gap Ofqual attributes largely to post-16 resits. This page separates the two using DfE's own accountability rules, with two named London schools and market context alongside them.
Our expert GCSE English tutors help students across London with both Language and Literature, across AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas. Book a short call and they'll build a programme around whichever GCSE — or both — your child actually needs help with.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppEvery one of the top search results for "gcse english tutors in london" talks about tutoring "GCSE English" as a single subject. It is not. GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature are separate qualifications, set to separate specifications, entered separately and graded separately. At AQA, English Language runs under specification code 8700 and English Literature under 8702 — two entirely different exam codes at the same board, both first taught from 2015. Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas each run their own separate pair of codes for the two subjects; a school's exam board choice for Language does not have to match its choice for Literature, though most schools use the same board for both to reduce timetabling overhead.
The entries confirm the two subjects are not interchangeable in practice either. In summer 2025, GCSE English Language recorded 825,940 entries in England, up 2.3% on the year before, while GCSE English Literature recorded 614,800, down 1.4% — a gap of 211,140 entries, according to Ofqual's provisional entries data. English Language was the only EBacc subject this year to post a bigger entries rise than maths. That national gap of almost a quarter of a million entries looks very different once you get down to an individual London school, as the two schools further down this page show.
Even once a family knows Language and Literature are separate GCSEs, London parents are routinely shown four different "English" figures that each mean something different. Confusing them is the single most common mistake in how these results get reported and compared between schools.
Attainment 8's English element is a points score, not a grade. DfE's own methodology states that Attainment 8 "includes: English language; English literature (double weighted providing both English language and English literature are taken)". In plain terms: if a pupil sits both GCSEs, their higher grade counts twice; if they sit only one, that single grade counts once. A school's headline Attainment 8 English figure can reflect either pattern, and the two are not comparable pupil for pupil.
The EBacc Average Point Score is stricter still. DfE states plainly that "for English results to be included in the EBacc APS calculation, pupils must sit both English language and English literature. The better grade counts towards EBacc APS." A pupil who sits only one of the two GCSEs scores zero for English in this specific measure — the same grade that counts fully in Attainment 8 counts for nothing here.
"Grade 5 or above in English and maths", the figure quoted on almost every schools comparison site, is more forgiving, and it is not an English-only result at all. It is a joint measure: DfE confirms "a pupil would have to achieve a grade 5 or above in either English literature or English language" alongside maths — there is no requirement to sit both English GCSEs, and the figure says nothing about English and maths separately.
The condition of funding for 16 to 19 education — the rule deciding whether a college must keep teaching English after GCSE results day — is the fourth measure, and it too is met by a grade 4 or above in either GCSE. It is also the one measure where Language and Literature stop being interchangeable the moment a resit is actually required, which the section below on resits covers in full, with a link to Leading Tuition's dedicated guide for the detail this page does not repeat.
Not sure whether your child's school is reporting Attainment 8, EBacc APS or the combined grade 5+ figure? Book a short call and our GCSE English tutors will work from your child's actual grades and target — in Language, Literature, or both — rather than a single headline number.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppNational averages hide as much as they show. Two London secondary schools, checked against DfE's Compare School and College Performance service, illustrate exactly how much a single school can differ from its own borough — in opposite directions.
| Measure (2024/25) | Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School (Islington) | Kingsford Community School (Newham) | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language entries | 167 | 299 | — |
| English Literature entries | 164 | 298 | — |
| Attainment 8 English element | 11.4 (Islington avg 10.3) | 10.5 (Newham avg 11.1) | 9.8 |
| Attainment 8 overall score | 52.7 (Islington avg 47) | 50.1 (Newham avg 51.2) | 46.1 |
| Grade 5+ English & maths (combined) | 54.7% (Islington avg 48.0%) | 45.8% (Newham avg 53.4%) | 45.4% |
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, a girls' school in Islington, recorded 167 entries for GCSE English Language and 164 for GCSE English Literature in 2024/25 — a gap of just 3. Its Attainment 8 English element score of 11.4 sits above both the Islington local authority average of 10.3 and the England average of 9.8, and its overall Attainment 8 score of 52.7 comfortably clears its own borough's average of 47.
Kingsford Community School in Newham tells a different story. It recorded 299 entries for Language and 298 for Literature — again a gap of just 1 — but its Attainment 8 English element of 10.5, while still above the England figure of 9.8, sits below the Newham local authority average of 11.1. Its combined grade 5+ English-and-maths rate of 45.8% is below its own borough's average of 53.4%, even though that borough average is itself close to the England figure of 45.4%. A school's own results and its borough's headline figure can move in opposite directions, which is exactly why checking an individual school matters and a borough-level ranking alone cannot substitute for it.
The two schools above show something else worth noticing: entries in English Language and English Literature are nearly identical at school level, yet nationally the gap runs to 211,140 entries. The explanation is not ability or preference. It is DfE's own resit rules.
Nationally in summer 2025, 23.3% of GCSE English Language entries came from candidates in Year 12 and above — post-16 students, overwhelmingly resitting after not reaching a grade 4 at 16 — against just 0.8% of GCSE English Literature entries, according to Ofqual's provisional entries release. That is one of the largest Year 12-and-above shares of any GCSE subject; only mathematics, at 26.4%, runs higher.
The reason is written into DfE's own condition-of-funding table. Where a resit is required because a student's GCSE English Language grade is a 3, the Department's guidance specifies continuing with "GCSE English language only for the minimum hours" — not Literature, whatever grade the student holds in Literature. English Literature carries no equivalent resit requirement of its own: a grade 4 or above in either GCSE at 16 satisfies the wider condition of funding for English, but once a resit is triggered, it is Language that gets taught again, not Literature. Leading Tuition covers the full mechanics of this, including what happens when a student has passed one GCSE and not the other, in a dedicated guide to failing English Language but passing English Literature, which this page does not repeat.
At Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School and Kingsford Community School — both schools without a sixth form of their own — none of this shows up in the entries data, because neither has a post-16 resit cohort to report. The national gap between the two subjects is concentrated almost entirely in colleges and sixth forms teaching resits, not in the Year 11 cohort a GCSE English tutor in London is usually working with.
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Third-party tutoring marketplaces publish their own rates for comparison. Tutor Hunt's own English tutors in London page advertises lessons from £15 an hour. MyTutor's GCSE English tutor listings start from £26 an hour, with its most experienced tutors charging up to £82 an hour or more, both checked in August 2026. Rates on both marketplaces vary by tutor experience, subject specialism and whether sessions run online or in person, and neither figure is Leading Tuition's own pricing.
What a family actually needs from a GCSE English tutor is less about rate and more about whether the tutor understands the specific gap: is it Language or Literature, which exam board's paper structure, and which specific assessment objectives the student is losing marks on. Our expert GCSE English tutors help students across London with both Language and Literature, across AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas, building every programme around a diagnostic assessment against the student's own school, syllabus and target grade rather than a generic scheme of work.
Already know whether your child needs help with Language, Literature, or both? Book a short call and we'll build a programme around their own school, exam board and target grade. Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews, read on 22 August 2026.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppEntries and year-group figures on this page are drawn from Ofqual's Provisional entries for GCSE, AS and A level: summer 2025 exam series, published June 2025. Attainment 8, EBacc APS and grade 5+ methodology are drawn from DfE's Key stage 4 performance release for the 2024/25 academic year, first published October 2025, with school-level data finalised April 2026 and last updated August 2026. School-level figures for Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School and Kingsford Community School are drawn from DfE's Compare School and College Performance service, checked August 2026. Exam board specification codes are drawn from AQA's own published specifications. Families researching Leading Tuition's wider GCSE maths tutors in London page, our A Level maths tutors in London page for the sixth-form stage that follows, or our English Language and English Literature subject services, and our wider tutoring across London, can find each covered on its own page.
No. GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature are two separate qualifications with separate papers, separate grades and separate entries. At AQA, English Language runs under specification code 8700 and English Literature under 8702 — two different codes at the same exam board, both first taught from 2015. Nationally, GCSE English Language recorded 825,940 entries in England in summer 2025 against 614,800 for English Literature, a gap of 211,140 entries, according to Ofqual's provisional entries data. Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas each run their own separate pair of codes for the two subjects.
It depends which measure applies. The Department for Education's condition of funding for 16 to 19 education is met by a grade 4 or above in either English Language or English Literature — there is no requirement to sit both. Attainment 8's English element only double-weights a pupil's higher English grade if both GCSEs are taken; with only one, that single grade counts once. The EBacc Average Point Score is the strictest measure of the three: a pupil must sit both English GCSEs for English to count at all, or the pillar scores zero.
Attainment 8's English element is a points score, not a grade. It double-weights a pupil's higher GCSE English grade only where both English Language and English Literature are taken, under DfE's published methodology. At Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington, the English element score was 11.4 in 2024/25, above the Islington average of 10.3 and the England average of 9.8. At Kingsford Community School in Newham, the same score was 10.5 — below the Newham average of 11.1, though still above the England figure.
No — it is a joint measure covering two subjects. The Department for Education states that to count for this figure, a pupil needs a grade 5 or above in either English Literature or English Language, alongside maths; there is no requirement to sit both English GCSEs. At Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School this combined rate was 54.7% in 2024/25, against 48.0% for Islington and 45.4% for England. At Kingsford Community School it was 45.8%, against 53.4% for Newham and the same 45.4% England figure — a school sitting below its own borough's average.
Because DfE's condition of funding treats the two GCSEs differently for resits, not because Literature is easier to pass. Where a resit is required and a pupil's English Language grade is a 3, the Department's own guidance specifies continuing with GCSE English Language, not Literature, whatever grade the pupil holds in Literature. Nationally, 23.3% of English Language entries in summer 2025 came from Year 12 and above, against just 0.8% of English Literature entries — a gap almost entirely explained by post-16 resit centres, since English Literature carries no equivalent resit requirement.
Both are schools without a sixth form, and both show almost identical entries across the two GCSEs, unlike the national picture. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, a girls' school in Islington, recorded 167 entries for GCSE English Language and 164 for GCSE English Literature in 2024/25 — a gap of just 3. Kingsford Community School in Newham recorded 299 entries for Language and 298 for Literature — a gap of just 1. Neither school has a post-16 resit cohort, which is exactly the population driving the much larger national gap between the two subjects.
Rates vary widely by marketplace and tutor experience. Tutor Hunt's own London English tutor page advertises lessons from £15 an hour, while MyTutor lists GCSE English tutors from £26 an hour up to £82 an hour or more for its most experienced tutors, both checked in August 2026. Beyond hourly rate, a tutor who knows a student's specific exam board and whether they need Language, Literature or both matters more for results than price alone — Leading Tuition's expert GCSE English tutors help students across London build a programme around their own school and syllabus.
Book a free consultation and we'll build a plan around your child's actual school, exam board and whether they need Language, Literature, or both.
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot. See also our guide to tutoring across London and our English Language tuition service.
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