General Qualifications Bulletin - International - Issue 23
Dear Colleague
Welcome back to the International and General Qualifications Bulletin and the first edition of 2022. Happy New Year and I hope you have all had a wonderful break.
2022 is shaping up to be another busy year for the education sector and we will be here to support you however we can. We will be hosting monthly drop-in support sessions to share the latest information around 2022 assessments, with the first event taking place on 27 January for centres outside the UK. In addition, our wonderful team of subject advisors and subject specialists will be running sessions for their relevant subjects in January. Find out how to book onto these sessions in the upcoming events section below.
There are also some exciting developments around onscreen assessments and what the future of assessments looks like, alongside our ongoing commitments on diversity, equity and inclusion across Pearson. Look out for more information on this in future editions.
We had A level results day in December, International A Level results day today and have GCSE results days to come in January and February for those learners that sat exams in the exceptional October/November series. I hope those learners received the results to support them with their next steps and for those that are still awaiting their GCSE or International GCSE results, good luck.
I will keep writing to you on a fortnightly basis via these bulletins and this will be the main place to get all the information you need for Pearson assessments. You can also follow us on Twitter (@ PearsonEdexcel) and Facebook to keep up to date. If you would like to speak to us directly, you can get in touch with any questions via our contact form, or by calling the relevant team for your role.
Hayley White
Assessment Director
In line with other Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) boards and our usual approach to releasing examination papers and mark schemes, past GCSE and A level papers from the October/November 2020 series will be made publicly available on awarding organisation websites from 18 January 2022. We will not be making examiner reports publicly available at this point. This has been a joint decision to support all students, including private candidates, in preparing for exams this year. You will be able to access these materials via the exam materials section on the relevant qualification pages.
Please note this does not apply to our international general qualifications.
We are making some changes to the way we invoice for your qualification entries. Invoices will be sent after the entry deadline and not on a weekly basis.
Entry and deadline information for UK qualifications
Entry and deadline information for International qualifications
This means that you may begin to receive invoices from the week commencing 21 February 2022.
As previously communicated, we will not be sending visiting Examiners to centres outside of the UK due to the ongoing pandemic situation. Once allocations have been made, Examiners will be in touch to confirm arrangements for the submission of digital evidence.
International centres will be now able to submit recorded performances digitally (via the Learner Work Transfer (LWT) platform) for assessment in 2022.
Please make sure you have visited relevant qualification pages and have read the corresponding guidance. We also have available a list of helpful video guides on how to use the system located on our support portal.
Take a look at our support portal
Subject Advisor Q&A sessions
Your subject advisors are running subject-specific, question and answer sessions on the June 2022 exam series for Pearson Edexcel qualifications. These start on 17 January. Please find the session for your subject and book your place through the Pearson Professional Development Academy.
Book your Subject Advisor Q&A session
General Webinars
We’re also running a series of drop in webinars over the next few months that are designed to help centres understand what's being asked of them this year. We’ll cover how to prepare for high-stake exams alongside the contingency preparation and the tools we have available to help minimise the impact on teachers.
Participants are encouraged to ask questions during the sessions and upon sign up will also be able to submit questions in advance which we will cover in the event.
This training is intended for centres based Internationally or in the UK and are titled according to who they are suitable for.
This training is not specific to Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A level qualifications as the arrangements for summer 2022 are common across all awarding organisations.
Arrangements for International GCSE will be specific to Pearson qualifications. You do not have to be teaching a Pearson qualification to attend.
Book your place for the January webinar today
We'd love to understand your experience of teaching or learning Maths and English at GCSE level. We are especially interested in the skills that are acquired during the GCSE course and any additional skills that you think would be useful if included.
Please take a few minutes to complete this questionnaire
Please visit the Summer 2022 support tab on each qualification page to find out about the specific adaptations which have been put in place for each qualification. The adaptation and optionality information is available on each page.
You will also find advance information guidance for relevant UK and International qualifications that we released in December. These guidance documents outline the approach that will be taken to the advance information that will be released by 7 February.
Take a look at the frequently asked questions that give you more detail about the adaptations
We’ve also created an interactive document that has all the key links that are currently available. This will be kept up to date as and when new information is released. We recommend you sharing this with your colleagues.
Download the key support document
The final Examination timetables for International A Level, iPrimary, iLowerSecondary and GCSE for the October/November 2022 exam series are now available on our exam timetables web page.
We're delighted to confirm that we're introducing a regular International GCSE November series from November 2023 to replace the January series from 2024 onwards. The January 2023 series will still go ahead. This will be the final January exam series for International GCSEs. More information will follow this month.
Modified papers for learners that require them for the May/June 2022 series can be ordered via the Access Arrangements Online (AAO) and Pearson Access Arrangements Online (PAAO). The deadline for ordering modified papers for May/June series is 31 January 2022.
In September we launched our new on-demand eLearning service for exams officers on our website. This is a fully interactive service, with pre-recorded guidance from our training team with mock web pages and systems so you can go through processes from start to finish.
We have newly released modules for making entries and requesting modified papers on our website now.
Take a look at the Exams Officer training today
There is a new FAQ hub and a new Teaching, Learning and assessment page for Vocational and Technical qualifications in 2021/22.
Read vocational and technical qualifications 2021-2022 FAQs
Take a look at the Teaching, learning and assessment 2021-2022 page
You will find the latest information and support for our vocational qualifications on this page, along with links to our regular VQ Bulletin containing all the key updates you need for our vocational qualifications. Please do bookmark this page for future reference.
