Me and my friends have been begging for this for years. I have already decided I’m taking English A-Levels as it’s my best subject, even though i’m only in my first year of GCSE’s (Yr 10)! I love English and I’ve always thought that Harry Potter would be on the list, like when the nxt generation come along, as the things we’re doing (as well as Shakespeare) are To Kill A Mockingbird, An Inspector Calls and Frankenstine. Slightly older literature. xxx

I am actually an Egnlish A Level student, and a Harry Potter fan, but I don’t think this is a good idea.

Firstly, Harry Potter is a series, not a single book. It would be difficult to stop yourself from analysing the way that the first book compares to the other books, instead of just writing about PS.

Secondly, it’s a children’s book. Let’s face it. And PS is the most child-friendly one of them all in my opinion. So I’m not sure how much stuff there would actually be to write about in essays etc. I’ve read it a billion times but if you got me to write an essay on it now, I’d probably be somewhat stuck for things to put.

And I had another point as well but I have in fact forgotten it lol.

Still, I can’t imagine that my school will let anyone do it hahh.

Maybe put it in the gcse foundation tier exam, but definitely not A levels. The language is too easy and besides, A levels are supposed to be boring and hard, not fun!

Awesome!!! Harry potter blows all those other books out of the water…I hate great expectations, most boring book i have ever read in my life…if i wanted to be entertained by a soap opera I would’ve watched t.v. ...

I want to take a test on hp!! haha

OMG THAT’S ME!!! I’m taking that next year cries I wonder what the other text will be…

A) PS is not a children’s book… How many of the people who are saying it is are children? None? Thought so. And when was the last time you read the book?

B) No, the book isn’t yet a literary classic, but the A Level isn’t Literary Classics, it’s LitLang, you could study any book!

pigwidgeon- have you taken an English A Level? It’s not about how easy/hard the language is, it’s about the way you analyse it! One of the things we had to do was “SPOCAing” [Subject, Predicator, Object, Complement, Adverbial]... If I went and picked a sentence from PS, would you be able to pick all of those out? Besides, A Levels aren’t supposed to be boring, you CHOOSE to do them, therefore you choose the ones that interest you!

Anyway. I think it’s great news ^_ I analysed the first chapter of PS for my English Lang A Level coursework because we could do absolutely anything we wanted, but I don’t think we were with AQA [and it was just Lang, not LitLang].

omg!!this has got to b the most surrealist thing ever!emma’s taking/finishing her A levels this yr..soon…does that mean the girl who plays hermione and is friends of JO has to take HP for A levels too?? tht’s like…..wow….she’’’ aCE it…lol.. i hear she’s in U6 anyway…

I think that this is a brilliant idea. I’m taking my A levels thew year after next and i really hop that they include it in the syllabus by then. I respect to it being too modern, for my GCSE English lit i’m studying “Paddy Clarke ha ha ha” which is a elatively modern piece of writing. I think it a little hyppocritical that some modern texts are acceptable whereas Harry Potter is not. Its totally unfair to think that just because a text is modern or popular it is a lesser piece of work. So keep fighting AQA

I think Harry Potter is a valuable piece of literature to study- just think how deep people like the essay writers here on leaky can go, analysing themes, context, language, history etc in the books. Especially as it is going to be compared to another, different, approach, i think this will be an enlightening exercise for students. Having done English Language and Literature at A-Level myself, I can say that I would absolutely have treated this as a worthwhile acedemic task, and not just an enjoyable read. These ‘advisors’ the government have need to give “children” (by the way, most of those taking the A-Level will be around 18 years old, hardly little kids!) more credit!

i don’t think anyone cares what we considered to be great literary work to be put on the A – levels. get over it.

When I read HP and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone, it always seems so primitive compared with the others. Half the time, the dialogue makes me wince because it sounds so unnatural. Don’t get me wrong – I love the books! :)

Aah, it’s a bit of a shame that I’ve started my AS Levels already and so this won’t apply to me, and I think I’m on a different examination board anyway.

Aww! Sooo unfair! Why oh why do i live in scotland where our education system is different (we do Highers instead of A levels) i doubt i’ll get to read HP next year it’ll probebly be robert burns and shakesphere… :(

I really love Harry Potter and have no doubt it will go down in history as a literary classic, but that doesn’t mean it’s a classic now. Everyone already knows HP’s place in the modern world, the controversies that went with it, and the social issues it questions. I’d like to think kids were studying something they haven’t necessarily read or heard of before, something that stood the test of time. Should Harry Potter be included in university classes such as ‘YA Literature?’ Absolutely! First on the list! But Harry hasn’t earned his place with the big boys and girls yet, in my opinion. Huck’s got a hundred years on him. Shakespeare (blegh) has at least four times that amount. The list goes on. He’ll be there somebody, though, no doubt about it.