GCSE English Language Paper 1 2026 Predictions: What AQA’s Unseen Text Could Be

As an English teacher in the UK, each year I play a guessing game. The game is “What will be the unseen text for GCSE English Language Paper 1?” (AQA board) and sometimes I am pretty close. Can I get it right in 2026? Last year, for example, I told my students I expected something like John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids to turn up, as science fiction hadn’t featured for a while in GCSE English Paper 1 (not since Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder in November 2018). Now, I didn’t get the novel right – it was The Midwich Cuckoos – but I did get the novelist. You're probably not too impressed with that, but you can go to the back of the class and be quiet for once. Regardless, here are my predictions (aka guesses) for this year. Barry Hines – A Kestrel for a Knave (1968). Grounded in social realism, clear and accessible prose with some great dialogue. Plenty of tension between the protagonist and members of his family in this one. This might be a little too realistic for AQA, however – they…