Changes to early entry examinations for GCSEs and BTECs
The Department of Education’s recent announcement regarding early entry examinations and school performance tables will affect BTECs as well as GCSEs.
On 29 September, the DfE announced that only the grade from a student’s first entry to a GCSE examination will count in their school’s performance tables. This new ruling comes into effect straight away.
While the initial announcement only talked of this being applicable to GCSEs, a subsequent update on 4 October has now brought BTECs into scope. You can find full details of the announcement Changes to early entry at GCSE on the DfE website.
We have repeated the relevant section below:
“These changes apply to GCSEs, level 1/level 2 certificates (sometimes referred to as IGCSEs), BTECs and other qualifications, where those would ‘discount’ against GCSEs in performance tables. The first entry across the subject, regardless of qualification type, will be the one that counts.”
(Taken from DfE announcement “Changes of early entry to GCSE”, 29 September 2013, updated 4 October 2013)
We are looking to clarify exactly what this means for next generation BTEC Firsts and will update you with any new information as we have it.
We recognise that many of you may already have made entries for the November series of external assessments for Applied Science: Principles of Science. If you wish to revisit or amend your entries in light of this news, please be reassured that you will not be charged for any withdrawals. We would ask that you complete any amendments before November 2013. However, we would expect to have greater clarity ahead of this date so you may wish to wait for further updates before making any changes.