Approved textbooks

Using an 'AQA approved' textbook ensures our subject experts have checked that it provides good support for our specifications. Textbooks which do not carry the 'AQA approved' badge have not been through our approval process and do not provide the same reassurance, even if the AQA name is used in the title.

approved textbook logo

AQA approved textbooks can be ordered direct from the publishers. Please note that purchase of these books is not essential to deliver our specifications.

Our publisher selection and approval (endorsement) processes

We select our publishing partners very carefully to ensure that we have the right resources to support our specifications.

As work starts on a specification, we contact publishers to see if they are interested in entering our approval process. We judge the proposals they submit against our selection criteria and select 2-3 publishers to work with in each case. Our subject experts then work through a detailed 4-stage approval process with each publisher. AQA approval is not automatic though and publishers may be asked to repeat a stage if necessary.

Since we only approve print and digital textbooks, some publishers' resources are not eligible for our approval processes. We're also keen to tell teachers about useful resources and details can be found in the links to our new specifications. Please see the relevant subject page for more information.

Policies and criteria

Further details are available: