Students at a leading London private school are studying a drag queen’s memoir and works by non-binary authors as part of a push to “diversify” the English curriculum.
Staff at Alleyn’s School in Dulwich, south-east London, said in a blog post that the authors were introduced as part of a “genuine diversification” of the curriculum.
The school aims to challenge “white-centric, patriarchal and cis-gender ideologies.” This includes discussing Macbeth’s toxic masculinity and reading The Tempest through the lens of colonialism. Cis-gender refers to individuals whose gender identity matches their birth sex.
It comes as Katharine Birbalsingh — often dubbed Britain’s strictest headteacher — questioned at a conference last week why themes such as racism and sexism were being prioritised in classroom discussions of Shakespeare.
While there is no suggestion she was criticising Alleyn’s School directly, Birbalsingh reportedly referred to a top London day school, according to The Times.
She declined to name it, but claimed the school had “abandoned all Shakespeare” in favour of works by the Irish drag artist “Panti Bliss.”
Panti Bliss, acclaimed Irish drag queen, activist and writer who wrote the memoir Woman in the Making, has since denied Birbalsingh’s claim that her works were replacing Shakespeare on the school curriculum.
She wrote on the social media platform Bluesky: “This is the second time this woman (“Britain’s strictest head teacher”) has claimed there’s a secret school in London she won’t name that has replaced Shakespeare with me. It’s complete bulls**t of course but why’s she so obsessed with me.”
The former head of English at Alleyn’s School clarified in 2023 that, although Shakespeare remains part of the syllabus, the curriculum has been broadened in the hope that every student can see themselves reflected in the texts they study.
Alex Smith said the same texts — such as Macbeth, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird — have been “wheeled out time and time again” for decades, propping up a “pale, male and stale” reading list.
Writing in the blog she said: “For the last five years, the Alleyn’s English department have been committed to a thorough and ongoing overhaul and genuine diversification of our English curriculum in the hope that every child will come to see themselves, and the rich and varied world around them, represented in the texts they study and that, by doing so, they will be equipped with the empathy and confidence to challenge and dismantle sexism, racism, homophobia — indeed, discrimination of any kind — when they encounter it.”
Pupils are being taught “Queer Theory” and queer readings of A-level texts such as Dracula in years 12 and 13, while year 12 pupils have been studying a spoken-word album by a non-binary author.
An anthology has also been compiled for year 9 students that included the writings of Panti Bliss.
The changes came after a report by campaign group End Sexism in Schools found that 77% of novels studied by pupils in years seven, eight and nine are written by men, and 82% of them have male protagonists.
The group said that 99% of plays taught to students in these year groups were by male writers.
