I am looking for a bit of help from our British members. In middle school and high school in the U.S. there were certain books universally required to be read ("Lord of the Flies", "1984", "The Catcher in the Rye" etc.).

I was wondering, What books were the most commonly required for book reports etc in England ?

At Grade9/10 level dogspit, we had to read,

"Far from the Madding Crowd" Thomas Hardy
"Pride and Prejudice" Jane Austin
Shakespeare's The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice

At Grade 11/12 level, or A level, we read,

"The Rainbow" DH Lawrence
"Bleak House" Dickens
"Paradise Lost" Milton
"Four Quartets" TS Eliot
The poetry of Yeats and Auden
Shakespeare's Hamlet
"Waiting for Godot" Samuel Beckett

I don't know if the required reading is still as traditional now as it was back then though.

Yes, I concur with dance girl's list as being typical of the sort of stuff I did at school. A few differences, certainly, but the same sort of mix and content. We did John Donne and John Keats. And we read Lord of the Flies and 1984 (and Animal Farm) and the Catcher in the Rye as well, all recommended or prescribed as set texts by the school and the exam boards in our later years. My daughters' studies had a not dissimilar mix to mine (Austen, Shakespeare, Lawrence), but included other writers too. Seamus Heaney's "Opened Ground" collection was a star, Brian Friel's fine play about communication and northern Ireland entitled "Translations" I remember too, and "The Whitsun Weddings" collection by Ted Larkin ... Ted Hughes, as well.

We had to read-
Lord of the Flies
Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
Northanger Abbey
Great Expectations

and many more that I have forgot, well it was more than 30 years ago

When I was in school, we never had to read what I think of as classic literature, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, etc...

I know there were ALOT of books we were required to read, but I was an avid reader anyway so don't remember. The only ones that have made a life-long lasting impression were:

Of Mice & Men
Animal Farm
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
Yes, I can by Sammy Davis Jr

The last two, I'm sure, were because of the time involved (1968-70), and because I believe my English teacher was really trying to teach his students about equality in a very volatile racial time. I will never forget those, and this thread has reminded me that I really need to find and read them again.