What's the Practical Endorsement?

From September onwards, students' skills and competency when completing A level core practicals will be assessed by teachers using the Common Practical Assessment Criteria (CPAC). This assessment leads to the awarding of a Practical Endorsement, which is reported on the A level certificate in addition to the overall grade.

How will it work?

All awarding bodies will follow the same process for administering and awarding the Practical Endorsement, including requiring specific documentary evidence from centres and conducting monitoring visits to ensure consistency in assessment. You'll find more details in the letter to all centres at the bottom of this page.

View the final CPAC criteria and mapping document below: 

Next steps

For the assessment and awarding of the Practical Endorsement to take place, all centres will need to register their choice of awarding body by the end of September and name a lead teacher for each science to attend specific training in autumn. The Joint Council for Qualifications is finalising how this registration process will work, and we'll be in touch as soon as we have more information.

In the meantime, you can let us know directly that you'd like to teach our AS and A level sciences from September. That way, you can get details of all our free support for teaching and assessing practical work, and the latest news about the Practical Endorsement. Simply complete your details here.