Wales’s new English GCSE could face significant changes just nine months after it was introduced, following warnings that it was burning out teachers and pupils.
The WJEC exam board is consulting on major adjustments to the GCSE English language and literature course, which only began being taught in September 2025.
The qualification was brought in as part of a sweeping overhaul of the curriculum in Wales.
But the board said it had “listened carefully” to concerns from schools, teachers and staff about the workload involved, and had concluded that “significant adjustments are needed”.
At the heart of the concern is the amount of non-examination assessment in some of the new courses — work such as oral assessments, portfolios and practical tasks that teachers often set and mark themselves, with less weight on formal exams.
The board is consulting on reducing the level of oracy, or spoken, assessment, and on dropping the requirement for some planning and research to be done under close teacher supervision.
Any major changes would apply to Year 10 pupils starting in September 2026, and would not affect those already a year into the course.
More limited changes are also being considered for the Welsh language and literature GCSE, which would come in from September 2027.
The move follows months of warnings from the profession. Headteachers in Cardiff wrote to the WJEC and the regulator, Qualifications Wales, saying the reforms had placed schools “under extreme pressure”.
Claire Armitstead, director of the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru, said it had been clear “from the outset” that the workload the new GCSEs placed on schools was “totally unmanageable”.
She said the union was “relieved” the board was looking to make changes, and hoped it would lead to a system that was “more manageable and deliverable going forward”.
The teaching union UCAC also said it was pleased the board had listened to the concerns of teachers and pupils.
The changes have become political. Sam Rowlands, the Welsh Conservatives’ shadow education minister and MS for Fflint Wrecsam, said the situation should “set alarm bells ringing across the Welsh education system”.
He said teachers and pupils had warned that too many assessments across the year were adding pressure and causing burnout, and “deserved to be listened to before this was rolled out, not after pupils had already started the course”.
Rowlands said the fact that significant changes were being considered so soon meant “serious questions need to be asked about the Welsh curriculum”, arguing pupils and teachers deserved one that was “manageable and focused on raising standards”.
The WJEC said its consultations would remain open until mid-June, after which it would confirm the outcomes before the end of the summer term.
A spokesperson said the board remained committed to working with the education community and to changes that supported both teachers and learners.
Qualifications Wales said it supported the work to address teachers’ concerns, and that any changes to the qualifications would need its approval before being introduced.
