GCSE reforms: What's happening?
Ofqual has confirmed the following changes to all GCSEs in England:
• All GCSE assessment will be linear in structure, so that examinations are taken at the end of the course. There will no longer be an opportunity to resit units.
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• Examinations will only be available in the summer series, except for retake opportunities for English, English Language and Mathematics.
• Additional marks will be awarded for spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) for GCSEs in English Literature, Geography, History and Religious Studies.
Wales and Northern Ireland
The governments of Wales and Northern Ireland have announced that awarding organisations will be free to offer both modular GCSEs and linear GCSEs in Wales and Northern Ireland. However, we will not be offering the current modular GCSEs in Wales and Northern Ireland for students certificating after 2013. Find out more about how we're fully supporting centres who will be implementing linear GCSEs in September 2012.
What does this mean for you and your students?
1. A reduction in the number of GCSE examination series
For awards made from summer 2014 onwards:
- candidates will have to take all GCSE assessments at the end of the course
- the GCSE examination series will be restricted to May/June, except for English, English Language and Mathematics, which will offer retake opportunities in November.
2. Additional marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG)
• Additional marks for SPaG will be awarded for GCSEs in English Literature, Geography, History and Religious Studies. The changes affect written and externally assessed units available from January 2013.
• Marks will be allocated to individual questions and students will be informed which questions include marks for SPaG.
3. No change to controlled assessment*
• There are no proposed changes to controlled assessment content.*
• Schools may continue to schedule controlled assessments at their discretion, as far as this is permitted by the specification. However, controlled assessments can only be submitted at the end of the course.
• Controlled assessment unit results may be carried forward if a student wishes to retake the whole qualification.
Please note that you will need to make sure that you are using the correct task for the end-of-course submission date.
*This is based on our draft specifications submitted to Ofqual and will be subject to change in the final accredited qualification.
4. Minimal change to our specifications
• We have no plans to change the subject content of our specifications as a result of the GCSE reforms announced by Ofqual. The GCSE reforms will affect the way external assessment is taken rather than changing actual external assessments.*
*This is based on our draft specifications submitted to Ofqual and will be subject to change in the final accredited qualification.