During the last few weeks over 500 delegates from school and college senior management teams have attended six Edexcel launch seminars around the country. The seminars officially launched Edexcel’s new suite of A level qualifications.
Speaking at the opening launch seminar, Jerry Jarvis, Edexcel’s Managing Director, outlined the key features: “There are three things that Edexcel is committed to offering for its new A Level suite. Firstly, innovative and engaging specifications; qualifications that young people will want to study. Secondly, a comprehensive range of teacher and learner support that will revolutionise the way in which A Levels are taught and studied. And thirdly, customer service. Quality customer service – including access to specialists – will be embedded in our education programme.”
Isabel Sutcliffe, Edexcel’s Director of Qualifications and Accreditation, explained further: “We consulted widely with teachers and examiners when developing our new specifications. And we believe that the new specifications we are launching are stimulating and inspiring for both teachers and students.
“We’ve deliberately set out to give teachers and learners as much choice as possible - both across the qualifications we offer but importantly within the qualifications we offer. We’re aiming to provide a flexible approach. By recognising that young people learn in different ways we can really start to begin to address the personalisation agenda. A flexible approach will enable young people to show their full potential.
“We know how important it is to teachers that they have access to support and we have spent much time in putting together a range of support services. Very importantly, the services we will be offering from summer 2007 will feature direct access to subject experts.”
Bob Osborne, Edexcel’s Director of Strategic Development, outlined two of the innovative support services that will be launched this summer: “Our support for teachers and learners will feature two ground breaking resources: ResultsPlus and e-Spec.
“ResultsPlus is the most comprehensive results analysis service available. It is a simple way for teachers to look at students’ performance and get a real sense of their strengths and weaknesses in seconds.
“Our e-Spec is an electronic version of the specification. It makes the spec come alive on the screen. You can jump to any page, links through to examples of student work, and hear comments from chief examiners in interview format.”
Jerry Jarvis concluded: “This is about a real partnership. Everything we’ve done has been as a direct response to consultation, and is dedicated to making the lives of teachers easier and the learning process for students more inspiring.”
Edexcel’s draft specifications are currently awaiting accreditation from the regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). Once accredited, the final specifications will be available on this website in the summer and will be
with centres in September 2007.
Edexcel is hosting a series of free subject-specific information events around the country throughout June and July, starting 18 June. These events are designed for heads of department and teachers who will be teaching the new specifications from September 2008.