Examiners have raised concerns over the standard of writing in English GCSEs, with some teenagers producing “sickeningly violent” stories this year.

One of the most frequently used titles for creative writing coursework was “The Assassin”, the latest examiners report on GCSE English from the Edexcel board said.

There were also concerns over teachers giving their pupils “incomprehensibly high marks” for poor quality work, while plagiarism was still seen as a problem, the report said.

In some cases the “personal and imaginative writing” coursework, which is worth 10 per cent of the final GCSE English marks, produced thinly plotted but extremely violent content, examiners said.

The report came amid widespread national alarm over a spate of murders and attacks involving increasingly young children caught up in gang culture.

The examiners’ report said: “’The Assassin’ again figured frequently as a title. This facilitated candidates to write in their own voice but within a very limiting framework, which allowed them to create and maintain a (sometimes sickeningly violent) atmosphere but provided few opportunities for character or plot development.

"Occasionally there was a sense that units were awarded marks on the basis of quantity rather than quality. Some work, which was riddled with spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, was awarded incomprehensibly high marks.”

The report on coursework continued: “Plagiarism remains a pervasive issue. The evidence of the folders suggests that centres (schools and colleges) take this very seriously and impose whatever controls they can to ensure student work is authentic.

“Some doubts inevitably remain.”

GCSE coursework is being radically cut back and in many subjects pupils will not be allowed to take their projects home to complete in a drive to stamp out cheating.

Ian McNeilly, from the National Association for the Teaching of English, said teachers should be concerned when they come across examples of extremely violent writing.

“Any teacher presented with a script which manages, in the examiners’ words, to maintain a ’sickening’ level of violence should be concerned,” he said. “Personally, I would give students the opportunity to write about something else. “We have got enough assassins walking the streets, unfortunately, without giving them time in the classroom.”

But violence among teenagers is a key national concern at the moment and examiners were right to raise the issue, he said.

“Look at some of the cultural influences, especially regarding music, that young people are exposed to - much of it espouses violence.”

He said he would like to see staff vary the writing tasks they set pupils so titles such as “The Assassin” are not over-used.

Earlier this year, Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, warned that criminal gangs were infiltrating schools, while headteachers said some children as young as nine were being used as “drugs mules”.

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