General Qualifications Bulletin - UK - Issue 14
Welcome to the 14th edition of the general qualifications bulletin and the final edition before results week.
I sincerely hope that you have had the chance to take a break over the course of the last few weeks and are ready to celebrate the upcoming results week. I want to take this opportunity to say a huge and heartfelt thank you once again for the important role you have played in ensuring learners can receive grades this summer.
In readiness for next week please do take a look at our qualifications home page where, from Friday 6 August, we’ll have key information and some resources that may be helpful on and around results day. There is also information in this bulletin about results day and some of the important actions to take, and we'll be sending a final Exams Officer update on Friday 6 August that will contain more of the technical guidance and support.
At the time of writing the JCQ Student Appeals Guide hasn’t been released but we are expecting it to be available shortly on the JCQ website. This is an important guide that will support students in understanding and navigating the appeals process should they need to.
We will be taking the time to celebrate results this year across our social media channels. Please follow us and share your success stories and we would love to share them more widely. You can follow us and tag your stories @PearsonEdexcel.
We are available to support you throughout the results period. If you have any questions visit our Summer 2021 support page, and follow us on Twitter (@PearsonEdexcel) 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
Next week sees the release of both Level 2 and Level 3 General Qualifications results.
Results should not be issued to candidates until 08:30am (BST) on 10 or 12 August depending on the qualification. Please refer to the table below for a final reminder of what’s happening and when.
Monday 9 August: AS/A level, AEA, International AS/A level, Edexcel Award Level 3 and Extended Project EPQ
- 00:01am - Electronic (EDI) results released to centres via A2C
- 03:00am - Electronic results will be available for centres on Edexcel Online (EOL)
- 06:00am - Results files uploaded to Exams Officer's EOL mailboxes
Tuesday 10 August: AS/A level, AEA, International AS/A level, Edexcel Award Level 3 and Extended Project EPQ
- 06:00am - ResultsPlus available to centres
- 08:00am - Appeals system available to centres on Edexcel Online
- 08:30am - Results can be released to students
- 08:30am - ResultsPlus Direct available to students
Wednesday 11 August: GCSE, International GCSE, Project Level 1 and 2, Edexcel Award Level 1 and 2, ELC(A) iPrimary and iLowerSecondary
- 00:01am - Electronic (EDI) results released to centres via A2C
- 03:00am - Electronic results will be available for centres on Edexcel Online (EOL)
- 06:00am - Results files uploaded to Exams Officer's EOL mailboxes
Thursday 12 August: GCSE, International GCSE, Project Level 1 and 2, Edexcel Award Level 1 and 2, ELC(A) iPrimary and iLowerSecondary
- 06:00am - ResultsPlus available to centres
- 08:00am - Appeals system available to centres on Edexcel Online
- 08:30am - Results can be released to students
- 08:30am - ResultsPlus Direct available to students
Hard copy results should arrive in centres on results day for centres who have opted in to receive them. If you are missing hard copy results and have opted in, please contact our customer service team who can assist with the tracking information.
You can download bulk result reports such as CSPRs from Edexcel Online. Guidance on how to receive results through EDI and Edexcel Online can be found on our Results and certification web page.
This year our Exams Officer helpline will be open for longer, and over the weekend to support you with any queries relating to your 2021 results. Opening hours can be found below:
Monday 9 August 6am - 5pm
Tuesday 10 August 7:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 11 August 6am - 5pm
Thursday 12 August 7:30am - 5pm
Friday 13 August 8am - 5pm
Saturday 14 August 10am - 2pm
You can contact us by visiting our Contact us web page, and choosing the relevant team for your role.
On 8 June Ofqual and the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) published their guidance for appeals in 2021. These are important documents that outline the processes that will be in place for this summer’s appeals process.
Ofqual Statutory guidance: appeals under the GQAA regulatory framework (PDF, 0.3 MB)
JCQ A guide to appeals processes summer 2021 series (PDF, 0.7 MB)
Appendix F (PDF, 0.1 MB) contains a checklist of actions which centres might wish to use to help reduce the number of queries and appeals on results day.
Appendix C (PDF, 0.1 MB) contains a list of the evidence which awarding organisations will need in the event of an appeal, and which centres might want to review now to ensure that all the documentation that will be needed is readily available.
JCQ will be releasing a student facing appeals guide with information that may be helpful for students. It contains some sections that you may want to use as individual handouts for students. We will add a link to this guide on our Support for students, parents and carers web page as soon as it becomes available.
We have also confirmed fee arrangements for post-results services and where these apply. More details about these can be found on our Appeals summer 2021 web page.
Key dates and deadlines for appeals can be found on our Appeals summer 2021 website and in the JCQ Guidance above. As a reminder all Stage 2 priority appeals must be received by 23 August 2021. Where a UCAS place is awaiting the outcome this should be flagged to us.
Don’t forget to take a look at our student and parent support pages that have got some useful handouts and information.
We have also created a one page handout that may be useful for students on results day. This will be available on Friday 6 August on our students, parents and carers web page.
Entry requirements and key dates for the October and November series can be found on our October/November 2021 exam series web page.
Basedata for this October and November series will be released on the 5 August.
Timetables
The final timetables for all UK and International qualifications in October and November can now be found on our Timetable web page.
October/November 2021 Series Fees
We know that the opportunity to sit examinations remains important for many of your students and we remain committed to supporting students' progress. We have decided to freeze autumn (October/November) 2021 exam fees for all our general qualifications (GCSE, International GCSE and AS/A level). This means that the fees for this series will remain the same as the fees published for summer 2021.
We know that some customers may be intending to sit exams in January 2022. Please make sure that you have looked at which International GCSE qualifications are available in the series via our Exam series 2022 document (PDF, 0.1 MB) as there have been some amendments made.
The provisional timetables for the series are also available on our Exam timetables web page. We will update you to confirm any assessment arrangements and the fees for this series by the start of the next academic year.
We fully understand teachers' need to plan their courses for the forthcoming academic year. In July the DfE and Ofqual released their consultation on the format of assessments in summer 2022 for UK GCSE, AS and A level. This consultation has now closed and we await the final outcome. Full details can be found in the Ofqul proposed changes to the assessment document (PDF, 0.4 MB).
The proposals for each subject are set out in Annex A of the consultation document.
We are also working on arrangements for international qualifications and will share a further update once confirmed.
Ofqual has finished consulting on arrangements for non-examined assessments in 2022. The consultation was on subjects with practical elements. The outcomes can be found on the Ofqual website. We’ll continue to keep our Summer 2022 support page up to date with the latest information.
We recognise and appreciate all the additional work that you and your colleagues have been doing for your students as a result of the changes to summer assessment. It’s been another extremely challenging year which has required extraordinary efforts by teachers, schools and colleges.
While your fees are paid at the very end of the two-year course, they cover much more than just the final exams and enable us to provide everything you and your students need throughout the course.
You can find further details on our 2021 qualification fees FAQs page, including visual guides that explain what qualification fees cover for both UK and International qualifications, how the money from these fees is spent and how our costs have been affected this year.
The updated guidance on awarding results in 2021 can be found on our Awarding results in 2021 web page.
You will find videos of briefings and Q&A sessions with additional detail, alongside the guidance.
If you’d like to find out the latest information and support for our vocational qualifications, please take a look at our Results day support web page where you can find news and updates, with links to our regular VQ Bulletin which contains all the key updates you need for our vocational qualifications.