General Qualifications Bulletin - International - Issue 46

We’ve got a new support page for you to bookmark – General qualifications assessment support. Here we’ll share news information and updates from Ofqual, the Department for Education (DfE), the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and Pearson, relating to the exams and assessments for our GCSE, AS and A level qualifications.

We’ll be updating it regularly so you know you’ve got all the latest announcements, news, support materials and updates to enable you to teach our qualifications, help your students with their assessments and post-results support, to enable them to progress.

General qualifications assessment support - autumn term

On 21 September 2023, Ofqual published the resilience guidance for centres delivering: GCSE, AS and A levels, Project Qualifications and Advanced Extension Award in maths (AEA). We’ve put together a summary of this guidance on our new support page with links through to the full information from Ofqual.

Please do encourage your team members to read through this guidance in full.

Ofqual guidance on collecting evidence of student performance to ensure resilience in the qualifications system.   

On 15 September 2023 the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) updated its ‘Instructions for the Conduct of Qualifications’ document for the 2023/24 academic year to provide more clarity to candidates, exam officers and teachers given recent changes in technology. 

In particular, the use of calculators in exams has been updated in Section 10 ‘Using calculators’. The use of calculators applies to a number of different subjects so please do pass this information to all who need to read it.

Full details can be found in the in the booklet Instructions for conducting examinations 2023-2024 and a set of FAQs about using calculators on the JCQ website.

Read the full information

JCQ General Regulations for Approved Centres (section 5.3, (j) Conflicts of Interest) states that centres must inform the awarding body, before the published deadline for entries, of:

• any members of centre staff who are taking qualifications at their own centre which include internally assessed components/units
• any members of centre staff who are teaching and preparing members of their family (which includes step-family, foster family and similar close relationships) or close friends and their immediate family (e.g. son/daughter) for qualifications which include internally assessed components/units.

Please note that when entering members of centre staff for qualifications with internally assessed components at their own centre, this must be as a last resort in cases where the member of centre staff is unable to find another centre.

Declarations can be submitted to us via our Declaration of Interest form.

Centres must also maintain clear records of all instances where:

• exams office staff have members of their family (which includes step-family, foster family and similar close relationships) or close friends and their immediate family (e.g. son/daughter) being entered for examinations and assessments either at the centre itself or other centres;
• centre staff are taking qualifications at their centre which do not include internally assessed components/units;
• centre staff are taking qualifications at other centres.

If you have any questions regarding declarations of interest, please email conflictofinterest@pearson.com.

Supporting continuous professional development with the PD Academy

Many of you have already been attending our online summer 2023 subject feedback events where we present key themes on how students performed in the 2023 summer series and give teachers the opportunity to explore this feedback. We’ve also been sharing ideas on how to make the most of the post-results support available and how this can be used to help prepare students for future exam series. We hope you’ve found these useful.

We do have more feedback events lined up, so please do visit the PD Academy and search for your subject to find out more about the events, dates, and how to sign up.

Visit the PD Academy

With the November resit series coming up, we wish all your students well.

Please take a look at the exam timetable for a reminder of the November resit dates. 

You can also access the resit rules for GCSE English Language.

We have a new and improved Pearson Edexcel International GCSE (9-1) for English as a Second Language qualification (2023). It has been designed to include cultural sensitivity, diverse reading, and additionally listening recordings are used throughout the assessment/resource materials to accelerate communication for the best language outcomes. The assessment is designed to measure achievement against many of the benchmarks of Levels A2 – B2 of the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

The last assessment for the International GCSE English as a Second Language (2017 specification) is May/June 2025.

Take a look at the the new specification.

International Schools can now choose between a linear or a modular assessment route for many of our International GCSEs. If you and your students are happy with the linear approach, that’s great, nothing changes.

Specifications, Course Planners, and Scheme of Work are now available online for the following first wave of subjects: Accounting, Commerce, Economics, English Language A, English Literature, Geography, History, and Religious Studies. The modular approach for these subjects will be available for first teaching from September 2023 and first assessment May/June 2024.

Learn more about International GCSE modular assessment. 

The future of assessment is here! As a result, there is increasing demand from schools and their students to sit exams onscreen. So, from summer 2024 the assessments for the following qualifications can be taken onscreen:

• International GCSE English Language A 
• IInternational GCSE English Literature
• International GCSE Business
• International GCSE Economics
• International GCSE History
• International A Level English Literature
• International A Level English Language

And from Summer 2025 we will offer:

• International GCSE Geography
• International GCSE Pakistan Studies
• International GCSE Islamic Studies

Learn more and talk to us about Onscreen Assessment.

We want to ensure you have all the help and support you need at your fingertips; that’s why we’ve got a library of support articles hosted on our Customer Support Portal. Each article contains answers, detailed information, step-by-step guides, instructional videos, and general advice. Articles require no special access, are easily searchable by keywords in their title, and are available 24/7, 365 days a year. 

Take a look at our short video that explains more about our support portal, the information you can find and the further benefits it provides. 

You can contact your Subject Specialists using the Customer Support Portal, and it is also home to our teacher and administration community groups. By joining these groups, you can ask questions directly to our Subject Advisors, browse posts and updates and share ideas and good practices with colleagues. And for good measure, we also have the portal user guide.

Check out the Pearson Support Portal.

Please take a look at EO Support: New Academic Year Essential Information covering important topics, including:

• November exam series 
• latest JCQ documents and guidance, including this year’s ICE document
• our 2023/24 Information Manual
• entry key dates and guidance
• and much more!
  

Autumn exam series

You can view the full November series timetable on our timetables page.

The stationery and materials spreadsheet for the autumn series is available to download. 

Outcomes of the consultation on A level Chinese and Japanese

We previously let you know that the Department for Education and Ofqual were running a consultation on the subject content for A level Chinese and Japanese. This consultation is now complete, and we have published an update on the outcomes on our languages subject update. 

Read the update.

Biblical Hebrew set texts 

We have recently published an update to our Biblical Hebrew set texts to include the texts for examinations in 2026-2028. These can be found on page 10 of the specification. 

View the specification.

Equation List for International GCSE Physics and Science Double Award 

We can confirm the following: 

The equation list will be retained for the November 2023 examination series for Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Physics (4PH1) and International GCSE Science Double Award (4SD0) for components 4PH1/1P, 4PH1/2P and 4SD0/1P. 

This means that students will have access to an equation list in the exam room showing all relevant equations. The equation list will be available as an additional insert inside the exam paper, and it will be the same as the one provided to students in the summer 2023 exam series.

Please read the latest science update for full information and links to download the equation list.

International GCSE English Language A (4EA1 03) coursework in November 2023

Centres are reminded that November 2023 submissions of Assignment A: poetry and prose texts must follow the issue 5 specification. Students write on two texts from Part 2 of the anthology and submit a commentary.

The submission deadline is 7 November 2023. 

Read on for further information.

Art and Design Support videos 

Check out our new series of bitesize videos for GCSE and A level Art and Design to help you understand your centre moderation reports as well as evidence and assess the Assessment Objectives this year.

Watch the full GCSE Art and Design playlist.

Watch the full A level Art and Design playlist.

These videos are for our UK qualifications, look out for the new video series for our international qualifications coming soon.  

Our Key Dates Finder enables you to find all of the key dates for Pearson general qualifications and subjects in one place. Here are those taking place during September and early in the autumn term.  

Our Subject Advisors do an incredible job supporting teachers, schools and colleges all year round.

Make sure you’re signed up to receive all the latest news and updates from your subject area. And if you’ve not met your Subject Advisor in person, take a look at the videos they’ve done to introduce themselves and hear them speaking about the type of support they provide and the experience they have within their fields. 

Take a look at your Subject Advisor's video and sign up for your subject newsletter today.

Bookmark our new teaching, learning and assessment 2023/2024 page.

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