Modern texts: Kit de Waal My Name is Leon (First teaching 2023, first exam 2025)

The idea

My Name is Leon is a modern text set for study from first teaching 2023, with first examination in 2025. Students study Kit de Waal's novel as a whole. Leon, a mixed-heritage boy in 1980s Britain, is separated from his baby brother Jake and placed with foster carers before moving to a new family. De Waal narrates in the third person but restricts the perspective to Leon's viewpoint, so readers share his limited understanding and emotional restraint. Candidates analyse how this limited third-person voice, the episodic structure, recurring motifs such as the garden and the bicycle, and period detail explore care, race, class, family and loss. They trace Leon's emotional journey and connect the novel's methods to its social and historical context. Assessment is a whole-text essay question; no extract is printed.

What earns the marks

• AO1: Explain Leon's changing understanding of his family situation.
• AO1: Trace the key events that lead to Leon's separation from Jake.
• AO1: Present an informed interpretation of Maureen's role in Leon's life.
• AO2: Analyse how de Waal uses a limited third-person perspective.
• AO2: Explore the structural significance of the allotments in the novel.
• AO2: Explain the effect of de Waal's use of simple sentence structures.
• AO3: Discuss how the novel reflects racial tensions in 1980s Britain.
• AO3: Explain the significance of the social care system in the novel.
• AO3: How does the novel explore ideas about identity and belonging?
• AO4: Choose a precise range of vocabulary so each sentence communicates its interpretation clearly and for the intended analytical purpose.
• AO4: Control sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, using complete sentences and secure clause boundaries.
• AO4: Use accurate spelling and punctuation throughout, including sentence boundaries, possessive apostrophes and punctuation around embedded quotations.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Summarising events rather than analysing de Waal's choices.

  Put it right: Frame each paragraph around a method or idea, then use evidence to show how the writing creates meaning.

• Describing Leon only as a victim.

  Put it right: Analyse his agency, resilience and moments of insight, and consider how the narrative voice balances vulnerability with strength.

• Treating context as a separate paragraph of historical facts.

  Put it right: Integrate relevant contextual understanding into analysis of specific moments and methods.

• Overlooking the novel's structure and motifs.

  Put it right: Comment on how ordering, repetition and recurring images shape the reader's understanding across the whole text.

• Assuming the exam prints an extract.

  Put it right: AQA Paper 2 Section A modern texts is a whole-text essay question, so prepare to write about the novel as a whole without a printed passage.

Exam tips

• Plan your response around the question's focus, selecting moments from across the novel that clearly develop your argument rather than listing many loosely related examples.
• Use precise subject terminology and always link it to effect, avoiding feature-spotting without explanation.
• Keep an eye on time so you can write a balanced whole-text response, then proofread your work.