General Qualifications Bulletin - International - Issue 57
Dear Colleague,
Welcome back to the new academic year.
I hope had a well-earned break and were able to enjoy the holidays. Whilst it’s hard to believe we are at the beginning of another school year I hope it’s going well so far.
I’m sure many of you have already been using our post-results services - ResultsPlus and Access to Scripts - to review and analyse your students’ May/June results. I hope you’re finding these services useful. You can also join us for live online subject insight events providing feedback on the International GCSE, International A level, GCSE and A level summer series. Find out more about these and other training events we offer through our Professional Development Academy.
This edition of the bulletin also includes information about:
- Assessment Services pre-exam and post-exam qualification support events
- the November 2024 exam series and entry deadlines
- support for Exams Officers for the new term
- a reminder about the deadline for Edexcel Online Account confirmation
- key subject updates
- and the final chance to have your say in our May/June 2024 post-exam survey.
As ever, if you need any more information or want to share any feedback with us, you can always get in touch via our support portal. We will always do our best to get you the answers as quickly as possible.
With best wishes,
Hayley White
Vice President, Assessment, Standards and Services
Now that you’ve settled into the new term and you’ve been reviewing your students results, there is still time to use our post-results services if you or your students have any concerns about results. Download our guide to help you understand your students’ results, the steps you can take to get more insight about their grades, and what to do if you’re unsure that the right grade has been given.
You can also take a look at grade boundaries for all qualifications and view our guides to understanding the 2024 approach to grade boundaries for our UK and International qualifications.
See full details on our post-results services along with key dates and fees.
ResultsPlus
You can still use our post-results service, ResultsPlus, to help you take a deeper dive into your students results from summer 2024 and support departmental CPD.
Take a look at our ResultsPlus video that provides an overview of the detail you can retrieve at student, class and cohort level.
You can also watch our video that shows you how our ResultsPlus Group Analysis service can support multi-academy trusts and groups of schools. This service can provide senior leaders with a clear overall picture of student performance across all their schools in Pearson Edexcel exams and BTEC external assessments.
Access to Scripts
Our Access to Scripts service is open until 13 December 2024. Not just useful for post-results support, but you can download student exam scripts* and gain a rich source of information, enabling detailed analysis to inform teaching and learning and support students - giving insights and visibility that performance data alone cannot provide.
Take a closer look at Access to Scripts and see how other centres have used this valuable service to support departmental CPD via our case studies.
*Written permission must be gained from candidates before scripts can be accessed.
Our Professional Development Academy supports teaching professionals in their continuous professional development, from sessions designed to inform on specification changes to learning strategies and everything in between.
As part of our post-results support, we’re now running online summer 2024 subject insight events where we’ll present key themes on how students performed in the 2024 summer series and give teachers the opportunity to explore this feedback. We’ll also share 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.
International GCSE and International A level insights events
UK GCSE and A level insights events
There are also many other courses available across a wide range of subjects. Visit the PD Academy and search for your subject to find out more about the events, dates and how to sign up.
We’re delighted to share that we’re hosting two new webinars on our Professional Development Academy focusing specifically on pre-exam support and post-exam support.
Whether you’re a seasoned teacher, new to teaching, new to teaching Pearson Edexcel, or a recent switcher to one of our qualifications, these webinars are for you.
In these webinars we'll cover our full range of support, products, and services available to enhance your teaching journey and better support you and your students.
Just like our Spotlight on Assessment series for Senior Leaders, these sessions zoom in on the resources and guidance you need for effective teaching and continuous professional development (CPD).
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about all the support available to you, engage directly with us, and share your ideas on how we can better support you.
Assessment Services Pre-Exam Qualifications Support
21 October 2024 at 4pm - 5pm GMT
Book your place now
Assessment Services Post-Exam Qualifications Support
23 October 2024 at 4pm - 5pm GMT
Book your place now
If you have students wishing to take the November 2024 resits for GCSE English Language and/or Maths, the entry deadline is 4 October 2024.
Please take a look at the exam timetable for the November resit dates
You can also access the resit rules for GCSE English Language
To help ease you into the new academic year, we’ve created a dedicated support article for Exams Officers with all the topics and processes for this time of year in one place.
Please take a look at EO Support: New Academic Year Essential Information
It covers important topics, including:
- Deadlines and support for post-results services and appeals
- November exam series
- Timetables and JCQ guidance
- Entry deadlines
- 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.
Cyber Security
Whether you’re a new or experienced Edexcel Online user its important that everyone is aware of the possible threats to our collective data. We would encourage all exams staff, new and old to visit our cyber security webpage and watch our short training video.
The window to complete our annual Edexcel Online Account Confirmation is now open. The deadline to complete this activity is 14 October.
The Edexcel Online Account Confirmation is part of our ongoing duty to maintain centre and learner data security. By checking that all user accounts and contact details on Edexcel Online are up to date, we can ensure that we contact the right people when we need to and access to secure information is limited to those who need it.
The confirmation needs to be submitted by the head of centre, and we ask heads of centre work closely with exams staff to ensure centre Edexcel Online account details are accurate and up to date.
The deadline to complete the Edexcel Online Account Confirmation is 14 October.
Read our centre guide to the Edexcel Online Account Confirmation
We’re excited to announce the launch of our new Pearson Edexcel Facebook page, designed to help and support you with the teaching and delivery of our UK and International qualifications. We’ll be sharing the latest news, updates and information about our support services across subjects. From our own news to updates from Ofqual and JCQ, follow us on @PearsonEdexcel on Facebook to stay up to date.
Geography
We’ve changed a small number of geographical terms in our UK GCSE Geography specifications, including ‘squatter housing’ and ‘slum settlements’. This is to replace terms considered outdated and problematic, and because we know many teachers have already stopped using them too. We’ve also made some changes to correct typographical errors.
Take a look at the new issue specifications and rationale documents explaining the changes.
- GCSE Geography A specification, issue 4
- GCSE Geography A summary of DE&I improvements
- GCSE Geography B specification, issue 3
- GCSE Geography B summary of DE&I improvements
The new issue specifications are for use with your new Year 10 cohort from this September, and assessment from 2026 onwards.
History
We’re making changes to our GCSE History qualification. The changes are coming in two stages: assessment amends for first assessment June 2025, and content amends for first teaching September 2024 and first assessment June 2026.
Information on these changes can be found via the two news items below:
If you have any questions about these changes, please contact our subject advisor, Mark Battye, at teachinghistory@pearson.com.
Languages
A Level Chinese and Japanese amendment
We are pleased to announce that Ofqual has approved our amendments to A level Chinese (9CN0) and Japanese (9JN0), for first teaching from September 2024 (first assessment summer 2026).
These changes reflect an update to the A level subject content set by the Department for Education for both qualifications, which was announced in October 2023 following a consultation.
As a summary, the main changes are:
- questions and responses to comprehension (listening and reading) tasks now appear in English instead of the target language (unless writing skills are also intentionally being assessed)
- questions about the literary works and films now appear in both the target language and English. Students will still be required to respond in the target language to these questions.
Other smaller changes are summarised in the Summary of changes table in the specification for each qualification.
The specification and sample assessment materials have been updated to show the changes made.
Take a look at the updated A level Chinese materials
Take a look at the updated A level Japanese materials
You can also download a walkthrough presentation.
Subject Advisor support
How do you stay up to date with all the news and information about the subjects you teach?
By signing up to receive a monthly newsletter from your Subject Advisor you’ll be kept informed of all the key information you need to know throughout the year.
This summer, students took over 14,000 GCSE, International GCSE and IAL exams onscreen – more than ever before.
Building on their experiences, robust research and your feedback, we’re offering even more onscreen exam options to schools and colleges for summer 2025.
We’re excited to be opening up more ways for students to best show what they know and can do and choice for schools and colleges.
Explore the range of onscreen options available – including taking a guided tour to see what the exams look like.
To enable us to improve the experience of teachers using our qualifications and students sitting our exams, we gather feedback after each exam series.
Thank you to all those that have completed the surveys so far, we really appreciate your feedback. If you're a teacher, and your students took any of our exams in the May/June 2024 series, there’s still time to share your thoughts on this year's exam papers.
We'll share your feedback with our senior examiners and across teams to ensure we continue to make improvements to our papers where appropriate so we can make sure your students have the best exam experience.
The surveys will close on 30 September.
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.
Date |
Qualification |
Exam |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
13 Sept 24 |
International GCSE |
Nov 24 |
Entry deadline |
14 Sept 24 |
International GCSE |
Nov 24 |
Late entry fees will be charged from this date |
20 Sept 24 |
GCSE English Language and Mathematics |
Nov 24 |
Deadline for ordering modified papers |
20 Sept 24 |
International GCSE |
Nov 24 |
Deadline for ordering modified papers |
23 Sept 24 |
International A level, iPrimary & iLowerSecondary |
Oct 24 |
Amendment fees will be charged from this date |
23 Sept 24 |
International A level, iPrimary & iLowerSecondary |
Oct 24 |
High late entry fees will be charged from this date |
27 Sept 24 |
International A level, iPrimary & iLowerSecondary |
Oct 24 |
Deadline to submit access arrangements applications |
30 Sept 24 |
International GCSE ESL, Chinese and French |
Nov 24 |
Speaking tests may begin |
1 Oct 24 |
GCSE English Language |
Nov 24 |
Final date to submit Form JCQ/CCA – centre consortium arrangements using Centre Admin Portal (CAP) |
4 Oct 24 |
GCSE English Language and Mathematics |
Nov 24 |
Entry deadline |
4 Oct 24 |
GCSE English Language and Mathematics |
Nov 24 |
Deadline to request transferred candidate arrangements |
4 Oct 24 |
International GCSE |
Nov 24 |
Deadline to request transferred candidate arrangements |
4 Oct 24 |
Edexcel Award |
Jan 25 |
Deadline to request modified papers |
5 Oct 24 |
GCSE English Language and Mathematics |
Nov 24 |
Late entry fees will be charged from this date |
5 Oct 24 |
International GCSE |
Nov 24 |
Late entry fees will be charged from this date |
6 Oct 24 |
International GCSE Computer Science 4CP0 02 |
Jun 24 |
Data file release available on our website |
14 Oct 24 |
International GCSE |
Nov 24 |
Last day that withdrawn entries will be refunded |
14 Oct 24 |
International GCSE |
Nov 24 |
High late entry fees and amendment fees will be charged from this date |
18 Oct 24 |
International A level, Edexcel Award and Project |
Jan 25 |
Entry deadline |
19 Oct 24 |
International A level, Edexcel Award and Project |
Jan 25 |
Late entry fees will be charged from this date |
21 Oct 24 |
International A level, Edexcel Award and Project |
Jan 25 |
Deadline to submit applications for access arrangements |
For more information on key dates for post results services please visit our Post-results services key dates page.
Multi-factor authentication was successfully rolled out to nearly a quarter of a million Pearson Portal users last year. Although it has now become a standard way of accessing our systems, that we should all be familiar with, it can sometimes present challenges if a smart device is lost or replaced. You can read more information, see a quick start guide and access FAQs and troubleshooting for our authenticator app in our Pearson Portal Authenticator support article.