Media Subject Update - December 2025
1 December 2025
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A warm welcome to your December update from your Subject Advisor.
Click on the qualifications you teach below for any updates regarding resources and training:
📢 Calling all Level 3 educators 📢
Looking for a summary of the key proposals from the Government White Paper, the CAR report and funding guidance?
Here's your invitation to the @Pearson briefing sessions for schools and colleges.
School educators: 10 December: 4 - 5pm
College educators: 11 December: 4 - 5pm
On 20 October the government published its Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper. We know you'll have questions about what this means for you and your students. Pearson want to provide you with clear information and reassurance.
Most importantly, you should continue to register your learners and deliver your programmes as planned for 2025/26. There are no immediate changes to your current provision, and BTECs continue to provide excellent outcomes for the thousands of students who choose vocational pathways each year.
As soon as we have full details about the funding arrangements for 2026/27, we’ll share them with you straight away, so you can plan with confidence.
To better support schools and colleges in marketing our qualifications to students and parents, we’re asking for your feedback.
Your responses will help us develop the most useful and effective marketing resources for your needs.
Please take a few minutes to complete the questionnaire:
Get in touch with the Pearson BTEC Team
For support with existing BTEC qualifications, please use the Support Portal.
Join the BTEC level 1 Introductory, Entry Level and BTEC Workskills and BTEC personal growth and wellbeing to share best practice and to seek information about the courses on offer.
Coursework sample size change:
From the January 2026 series, we’ll be asking you to submit a slightly larger sample size for moderation in Project qualifications and BTEC Tech Awards.
From June 2026, this approach will also apply to GCSE, International GCSE, A level and Entry Level Certificate qualifications.
This change is designed to make moderation smoother and reduce the need for additional sample requests later in the year.
Read our email about changes to sample sizes
BTEC UK Key Dates and termtime checkpoints guide 2025/2026
Earlier release of PSAs:
Your BTEC Tech Award Pearson set assignments (PSAs) for the May/June 2026 series are now available to download from each Tech Award’s course materials page.
PSAs are now released three months earlier, giving you more time to plan, prepare, mark and upload assessments.
Read more about the earlier release of PSAs
Check out our free live training:
- 14th Januay 2026 at 16:00-18:00 Getting Started: Ways to Teach and Assess BTEC Tech Awad (2022) in Creative Media Production
BTEC Tech Awards 2022: Support Index
Registration and Entry Deadlines
Previous Live Training:
Creative Media Production Marking and moderation for Component 1
We are committed to continuously improving the BTEC Tech Awards to give you and your students the best possible experience. The feedback we have received since launching the 2022 series has helped to shape real, practical improvements in line with standards set by the Department for Education.
End of academic year: BTEC Tech Award feedback
Sign up for future Tech Award (2022) updates
Getting Started: Ways to Teach and Assess
Walkthough of the Level 2 Skills Qualification
| May/June Series | BTEC L3 Nationals and L2 Skills |
|---|---|
| 1 November 2025 | Deadline for registrations - late registration fees after this date |
| 15 May 2026 | Deadline for Standards Verification sampling |
| 15 June 2026 | Deadline for Standards Verification additional sampling (if applicable) |
| 5 July 2026 | Deadline to submit results for certification on August results days |
| 5 August 2026 | Restricted release of results to centres |
| 13 August 2026 | Release of results to learners |
31st December 2025 - BTEC deletion deadline: deadline to delete learner registrations and receive a full refund for registrations made this academic year.
BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints:
We recently published the BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints for 2025/26.
While your exams officers will take the lead on most of these activities, your support will be important to help meet these deadlines, so it’s useful to be aware of what is required and when.
Find out more about term-time checkpoints
Explore our key dates and term-time checkpoint guide here:
https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/btec-generic/btec-uk-key-dates-2025-26.pdf
Here are some helpful resources to help you plan this school year.
BTEC international key dates and termtime checkpoints 2025/26
Here are some helpful resources to help you plan this school year:
Here are some helpful resources to help you plan this school year:
| May/June Series | BTEC Higher Nationals |
|---|---|
| 15 November 2025 | Deadline for registrations |
| November 2025 | Allocation of External Examiner (EE) |
| November 2025 - February 2026 |
Contact made with your EE |
| November 2025 - March 2026 |
Two assignment briefs sent to your EE for review |
| May - July 2026 | External Examination sampling - completed by 30 July |
| August 2026 | Students receive qualification |
We launched our new BTEC Higher Nationals qualifications for Art, Design and Media in September 2023 alongside our existing qualifications. Our aim is to give you more flexibility and scope when designing your curriculum so we hope you enjoy our new titles.
Resources for these qualifications can be accessed through HN Global.
T Levels Media & Broadcast Event
We’re excited to invite you to our free T Levels Media, Broadcast and Production Networking Day on Monday 9 December, in London.
Whether you're already delivering Pearson Media T Levels or thinking about it, this is a great chance to:
• Connect with other providers
• Share ideas and best practice
• Chat with Pearson Product Managers
• Hear from Raindance Film School on working with industry and supporting learner progression
Learn more and book your place
T Level Autumn 2025 Exam Timetable
Catch up on all the T Level news:
We send out a monthly newsletter to all T Level providers.
Are you missing out on these updates? Make sure you receive the latest news and updates about T Levels directly to your inbox by signing up.
Career Spotlight Panels:
Wednesday 10 December 2025 16:30 - 17:30
FREE Into Film x Film & TV Educators Network
Our panel will include:
- Scarlett Heisel is a production secretary and team assistant at Universal Television Alternative Studios (UTAS UK). She began as an intern on The Real Housewives of London and is now helping the executives of the company and shows currently in production.
- Poppy Coggins, Head of Production Management at London Screen Academy. Her credits include Channel 5’s Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother, ITV’s The All New Monty, and BBC One’s Pointless.
- Shariffa Abdulrehman is Production Executive at Sky Entertainment Group, Unscripted Productions. Her credits include Never Mind The Buzzcocks - Series 5 (Sky Max), The Girl Who Caught A Killer (Sky Docs) and Starving Yemen (BBC Arabic).
Career Spotlight Panels:
Wednesday 03 December 2025 16:30 - 17:30
FREE Into Film x Film & TV Educators Network
Our panel will include:
- Hannah Wing, Head of Hair and Makeup at London Screen Academy and a hair, makeup and costume designer for film & TV. Her credits include work for ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 as well as Cartier, Burberry and Disney. She is also the author of The Vintage Beauty Parlour and the co author of The Vintage Fashion Bible.
Thank you!
I hope you found this update useful. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me and the team using the contact details below.
You can also sign up to get Media updates straight to your inbox every month.
Subject advisor
Sarah Fearnley
Media
Email :
Phone :
+44 (0) 344 463 2535
(Teaching Services team | Mon - Fri, 8am - 5pm GMT )
