Not available to centres in England, in WJEC’s own words, and in its final assessment cycle before a January 2027 resit-only series.
Book a Free ConsultationWJEC GCSE English Literature (specification 3720QS) is a Welsh Government-regulated qualification that WJEC’s own specification states is “not available to centres in England.” Summer 2026 is its final full assessment opportunity, with a resit-only series in January 2027 and no new Year 10 entries accepted since September 2025. Schools entering Year 10 from September 2026 use its replacement, GCSE English Language and Literature.
Sitting WJEC GCSE English Literature for its final assessment series in summer 2026, or the January 2027 resit? Our expert GCSE English Literature tutors build every programme around the actual specification a student is entered for — the units, the tiering and WJEC’s own stipulated set texts — not a generic essay-writing course.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppNo. WJEC states the position on the cover of its own specification: “This Welsh Government regulated qualification is not available to centres in England.” The same restriction applies to the qualification that replaces it — WJEC’s GCSE English Language and Literature (Single and Double Award) specification carries an identical line: “This Qualifications Wales regulated qualification is not available to centres in England.”
WJEC is the Wales-facing awarding body, regulated by Qualifications Wales rather than Ofqual. Its England-facing sister brand, Eduqas, offers a separately accredited GCSE English Literature specification under a different code — a genuinely different qualification, not the same one under two names. WJEC’s own site makes the split explicit: its Wales-facing qualification pages carry a “Teach in England?” link that sends an England-based visitor across to eduqas.co.uk. A school in England cannot enter a student for WJEC’s GCSE English Literature (3720QS); it can only enter for Eduqas’s equivalent.
WJEC’s live qualification page states the position without qualification: “Summer 2026 will be the final full assessment opportunity for this qualification. A resit opportunity for examinations will be available in January 2027, subject to demand.” The same page adds a rule that matters more to a family with a younger child than the resit date does: “From September 2025, learners must not be entered onto this qualification in Year 10, they should be entered for GCSE English Language and Literature (Single and Double Award) – Teaching from 2025.”
In practice that means two different groups of students are covered by a search for this qualification, and only one of them still has a live specification to sit. A student already partway through WJEC GCSE English Literature — who began the course before September 2025 — sits their externally-assessed units for the final time in summer 2026, or resits in January 2027 if they need to. A student starting Year 10 in September 2026 or later is not on this specification at all; their school will have entered them for the replacement qualification instead, whatever informal name a parent or a search engine still attaches to “GCSE English Literature.”
WJEC’s own summer 2026 exam timetable corroborates that the closure is real and scheduled rather than a policy statement with no operational follow-through: it lists a live sitting for GCSE English Literature (WALES) Unit 1, paper code 3720U10-1, on the same document that separately lists GCSE English Literature (Eduqas) under an entirely different code prefix, C720U10-1 — independent confirmation that WJEC and Eduqas run separately coded qualifications, not the same one relabelled.
WJEC’s replacement specification is a merged qualification, not a renamed WJEC GCSE English Literature. Qualifications Wales explains the reasoning directly: “we are replacing the existing English language and English literature GCSEs with an integrated English language and literature GCSE” as part of aligning GCSEs with the Curriculum for Wales. The two previously separate GCSEs — Language and Literature — stop existing as separate qualifications for a student starting this course; a student does not choose “Literature” as a discrete subject at all.
The replacement is itself unitised and untiered. WJEC’s specification states: “To achieve the Single Award, candidates must sit Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3 and 4a. To achieve the Double Award, candidates must sit Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4b, Unit 5 and Unit 6.” First assessment is staggered by unit rather than arriving all at once: Units 1 to 3 are available from summer 2026, Unit 4b is available for the first time in November 2026, and Units 4a, 5 and 6 are first available in summer 2027, when the qualification is first awarded in full. Its own approval numbers are Single Award C00/5086/9 and Double Award C00/4968/6, entered under cash-in codes 3750QS and 3750QD.
A family with a child already on the closing GCSE English Literature specification and a younger child starting Year 10 later is, in effect, dealing with two different qualifications under the same exam-board umbrella — not one course two years apart.
Whichever cohort your child falls into — finishing the closing WJEC GCSE English Literature specification or starting the new GCSE English Language and Literature — our expert tutors work from the actual specification a school has entered a student for, not a generic revision pack.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppWJEC’s specification calls this “a unitised specification which allows for an element of staged assessment” — a structural difference from England’s linear GCSEs, where a single set of papers is sat once at the end of Year 11. Unit 1 is offered in both January and June each year; Units 2 and 3 are June-only. A candidate may resit an individual unit once, subject to a rule limiting resits to a proportion of the qualification taken as a terminal assessment, and non-exam-assessment marks from Unit 3 carry forward for the life of the specification rather than needing to be resat.
| Unit | Content | Assessment | Duration | Weighting | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Prose (different cultures) + unseen contemporary poetry comparison | External, January & June | 2 hours | 35% | 50 raw / 70 UMS |
| Unit 2a | Literary heritage drama + contemporary prose | External, June | 2 hours | 40% | 60 raw / 80 UMS |
| Unit 2b | Contemporary drama + literary heritage prose | External, June | 2 hours | 40% | 60 raw / 80 UMS |
| Unit 3 (NEA) | Shakespeare + Welsh writing in English | Non-exam, June | — | 25% | 48 raw / 50 UMS |
Source: WJEC GCSE English Literature specification (teaching from 2015, Version 3, September 2019), section 4.
A candidate sits Unit 1, one of either Unit 2a or Unit 2b — never both — and Unit 3, so the qualification is built from three assessed components even though the specification lists four unit codes. Section A of Unit 1 examines one prose text “in context,” worth 21% of the qualification; Section B is a comparison of unseen contemporary poetry, worth 14%. Unit 2’s two routes are each worth 40%, structured as a choice between two drama-and-prose pairings, detailed in the set-texts section below.
Across the whole qualification, WJEC weights its four assessment objectives 37% (AO1), 32% (AO2), 12% (AO3) and 19% (AO4) — its own totals print as “Total 37% 32% 12% 19% 100%.” The pairing is notable for what it does not include: WJEC’s AO3 is comparison between texts and its AO4 is social, cultural and historical context, and there is no discrete spelling-and-grammar assessment objective at all — accuracy is folded into the general mark-scheme descriptors for every unit instead.
WJEC’s specification states plainly, for both Unit 1 and Unit 2: “Candidates are not permitted to take copies of the set texts into the examination.” Both externally examined units are closed book — no annotated copy, no clean copy, nothing beyond what the exam paper itself provides.
Unit 3, the non-exam assessment, works differently, because it is assessed under formal supervision rather than sat as a timed exam paper. WJEC’s specification allows access to the texts during the final session: “During the final assessment period candidates are allowed to consult clean copies of the texts.” Notes, drafts and worksheets are still barred — “Candidates are not permitted to take notes or drafts into the non-examination assessment sessions although clean copies of the texts are allowed” — so a student can check a quotation but cannot bring in prepared analysis. That distinction, unit by unit rather than qualification-wide, will not show up in a search for “is WJEC GCSE English Literature open book” answered as a single yes-or-no.
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Book a short consultation and we’ll talk through your child’s actual WJEC units and set texts before the first lesson. Our expert GCSE English Literature tutors prepare students for both the closing 3720QS series and its replacement.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppSet texts on this specification split three ways: two lists the school chooses from freely, one Shakespeare play the school chooses from the whole canon, and one component the school does not choose at all.
The drama shortlist has narrowed since the specification was first published: Othello and Much Ado About Nothing were both examined for the last time in 2021 and have since been removed, leaving three plays.
Chosen by the centre from any Shakespeare play. An earlier restriction barring Othello and Much Ado About Nothing from this component specifically was later removed by amendment — “the previous restriction on these plays within Unit 3 (NEA) has been removed” — so, unusually, both plays remain valid Unit 3 choices even though they were permanently dropped from the Unit 2a drama list. WJEC sets a generic thematic task each cycle rather than a play-specific question: “WJEC will set a generic task on a specific theme which centres may use or modify,” published on WJEC’s secure website roughly two years ahead of the assessment series.
This is the one component on the specification a school has no say over. Every centre studies from a single fixed anthology, Poetry 1900-2000: One Hundred Poets from Wales, edited by Meic Stephens. WJEC’s specification is explicit: “It is a requirement of the specification that 15 specified poems must be studied for Section B of this unit.” Which 15 of the anthology’s poems, and on what theme, is set by WJEC itself and published centrally — not chosen by the teacher, and not necessarily the same set every cycle.
That single stipulated component is the clearest board-specific fact this specification carries: the school controls every other text choice on the qualification, and controls none of this one.
Confirming which Unit 2 route, which Shakespeare play and which 15 poems a school has actually set is the first thing our tutors do. Our expert GCSE English Literature tutors then teach directly to those texts, not a generic set-text overview.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppWJEC’s specification states the position for Wales in general terms that apply to this qualification: “GCSE qualifications in Wales are reported on an eight-point scale from A* to G, where A* is the highest grade… the attainment of learners who do not succeed in reaching the lowest possible standard to achieve a grade is recorded as U (unclassified).” Wales has not adopted the 9-1 numerical scale England moved to for GCSEs; a WJEC GCSE English Literature certificate carries a letter grade, not a number.
The qualification is also tiered on its externally examined units, unusually paired with an untiered non-exam-assessment component: “externally assessed units are targeted at the grade ranges of A*-D (Higher Tier) and C-G (Foundation Tier), while non-examination assessments cater for the full range of ability.” A narrow miss of Grade D on Higher Tier is not an automatic U — the specification adds a safety-net rule: “Candidates who narrowly fail to achieve Grade D on Higher Tier will be awarded Grade E.”
The replacement qualification keeps the same shape rather than moving to 9-1: WJEC’s specification for GCSE English Language and Literature states “GCSE single award qualifications are reported on an eight-point scale from A*-G… GCSE double award qualifications are reported on an eight-point scale from A*A*-GG.” A family moving from an English board’s 9-1 system, or moving a child the other way, needs to know the scale itself changes, not just the specification content.
WJEC and Eduqas are not the same awarding body wearing two names. WJEC is the Welsh Government/Qualifications Wales-regulated brand and, by its own specification’s words, “not available to centres in England”; Eduqas is WJEC’s separately accredited England-facing brand, examined under a different specification code (Eduqas’s GCSE English Literature carries the C720 prefix against WJEC’s own 3720QS). A school in England choosing a WJEC-family board for GCSE English Literature is choosing Eduqas, not this specification. Eduqas’s own set texts, paper structure and grading detail are outside what this page covers; our wider comparison of AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas GCSE English Literature sits on our GCSE English Literature hub page.
Whether a school has entered a student for WJEC or for Eduqas, our expert GCSE English Literature tutors confirm the specification first, then teach to the actual units, texts and grading scale in front of that student.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppNo. WJEC states on its own specification cover page: “This Welsh Government regulated qualification is not available to centres in England.” The replacement qualification, GCSE English Language and Literature (Single and Double Award), carries an identical restriction under Qualifications Wales. WJEC is the Wales-facing awarding body; its separately accredited England-facing brand is Eduqas, which offers its own GCSE English Literature specification under a different code (C720 rather than WJEC’s 3720QS). A school in England can only enter students for the Eduqas specification, never for this one.
Yes. WJEC’s live qualification page states: “Summer 2026 will be the final full assessment opportunity for this qualification. A resit opportunity for examinations will be available in January 2027, subject to demand.” The same page confirms schools stopped making new entries before that: “From September 2025, learners must not be entered onto this qualification in Year 10.” A student already partway through the course sits its final assessment in summer 2026 or resits in January 2027; a student starting Year 10 from September 2026 is on the replacement qualification instead.
GCSE English Language and Literature (Single and Double Award), a merged qualification WJEC introduced for first teaching from 2025. Qualifications Wales explains the change directly: it is “replacing the existing English language and English literature GCSEs with an integrated English language and literature GCSE” to align with the Curriculum for Wales. The replacement is unitised and untiered, with Units 1 to 3 first available in summer 2026, Unit 4b first available in November 2026, and the remaining units first available in summer 2027, when the qualification is first awarded in full.
A*-G. WJEC’s specification states: “GCSE qualifications in Wales are reported on an eight-point scale from A* to G, where A* is the highest grade,” with U recorded for a candidate who does not reach the lowest grade. Wales has not adopted England’s 9-1 numerical scale for this qualification. The replacement qualification keeps the same shape: Single Award is graded A*-G and Double Award A*A*-GG, both eight-point scales rather than 9-1.
It depends which unit. Units 1 and 2, both externally examined, are closed book: WJEC’s specification states “candidates are not permitted to take copies of the set texts into the examination” for each. Unit 3, the non-exam assessment, is different because it is completed under formal supervision rather than sat as a timed paper: “during the final assessment period candidates are allowed to consult clean copies of the texts,” though notes and drafts are still barred.
Mostly the school, but not entirely. The Unit 1 prose text, the Unit 2 drama and prose pairing, and the Unit 3 Shakespeare play are all chosen by the centre from WJEC’s own shortlists. The exception is Unit 3 Section B, Welsh writing in English: WJEC’s specification requires that “fifteen specified poems must be studied,” drawn from a single fixed anthology, Poetry 1900-2000: One Hundred Poets from Wales, with the specific 15 poems and theme set centrally by WJEC and published in advance rather than chosen by the school.
Three separately weighted units, not a single terminal exam. WJEC’s specification describes it as “a unitised specification which allows for an element of staged assessment”: Unit 1 is offered in January and June, worth 35% of the qualification; Units 2 and 3 are June-only, worth 40% and 25% respectively. A candidate sits Unit 1, one of either Unit 2a or Unit 2b, and Unit 3 — never all four listed unit codes at once.
Our specialist GCSE English Literature tutors work from a student’s actual specification — WJEC’s closing 3720QS through its final summer 2026 and January 2027 resit series, or its replacement, GCSE English Language and Literature — alongside our wider GCSE English and A-level English Literature tuition. Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews, and 91% of our students go on to achieve their desired grades.
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