July 2023 Business update
Welcome to this July update!
As we approach the end of term, the focus of this update is on preparation for Results Day in August. There are a number of things you may wish to check and pages to bookmark in order to save you time in August.
When the end of term comes, I hope that you are able to enjoy a relaxing summer break.
In this month's update:
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 4 July | Question papers released (AL, IAL, GCSE, International GCSE) |
| 18 July | Mark schemes released (AL, IAL, GCSE, International GCSE) |
| 17 August | Results Day for A level and IAL |
| 22 August | Examiners' reports released (AL, IAL) |
| 24 August | Results Day for GCSE and International GCSE |
| 29 August | Examiners' reports released (GCSE, International GCSE) |
You may wish to check your access rights in your Edexcel Online account so that you can access the information you need on results days.
Results files and their contents are confidential to the Head of Centre, examinations office staff and senior members of the teaching staff at the centre. Therefore, the Edexcel Online ‘Results’ profile is only granted to these roles, as it allows access to results files on Wednesday results days.
Other teachers that need access to view results should be given ResultsPlus access, as this is designed to meet the needs of teachers to view and analyse the results for their own students. Results are available through ResultsPlus for teachers on the Thursday results days.
You may also wish to ask your Exams Officer to tick 'Exam viewer' in your Edexcel Online profile in case you want to download candidate scripts from results day (having obtained the candidates' consent first).
ResultsPlus is an online results analysis tool that gives you a detailed breakdown of your learners’ performance in Pearson Edexcel exams.
ResultsPlus provides detailed analysis of your learners' performance and will help you to identify potential topics, skills and types of questions where students may need to develop their learning further. You may find it helpful to understand how your learners’ performance compares with class and Pearson Edexcel national averages and to gather some insight data that may support effective teaching and learning approaches.
We’ve also got our ResultsPlus Group Analysis service. Developed to 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, and can also be used to analyse your mock exam results, making this service a valuable tool for use throughout the academic year.
We’ll need to set up a separate account for your multi-academy trust or groups of schools, even if your own school is already set up with a ResultsPlus account.
Please ensure you have created a ResultsPlus Group Analysis account before the end of term and be ready for results day.
Back in September 2022, Ofqual announced what we were to expect in relation to grade boundaries for the 2023 exams.
On Results Day, you may wish to find the 2023 grade boundaries for your subject on our Grade Boundaries page.
The A level maximum mark is 335 as this reflects the different weightings of the three A level papers. All three papers are out of 100 but Papers 1 and 2 have a 35% weighting whereas Paper 3 has a 30% weighting. This means that the marks you see are adjusted marks and not raw marks.
The conversion works by multiplying Paper 1 and 2 marks by 1.1725 and the Paper 3 mark by 1.005.
If you would like to see the cumulative percentage of candidates at each grade boundary as a percentage of the total cohort, you will need to visit the Grade Statistics Page.
The Access to Scripts service allows you to view your candidates’ marked scripts online or download as PDFs, providing transparency of marking and to help you make decisions around requests for reviews of marking and inform future teaching and learning.
The Access to Scripts service provides 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.
The portal can only be accessed by Edexcel Online users who have the 'Exam Viewer' profile ticked on Edexcel Online. Your exams officer gives teachers access to 'Exam Viewer'.
Please note that these scripts do not contain examiners' annotations.
If scripts have been marked 'traditionally' (i.e. not online), you will need to request them, free of charge, by the published deadline, via the Post Results section of Edexcel Online as in previous exam series.
Access To Scripts via Script Viewer is available from Results Day until 15 December 2023.
Candidate consent is required before requesting script copies, as per section 6.2.1 of the JCQ's Post-Results Services guide. Candidate consent can only be obtained after results have been published.
Candidate consent forms can be found in Appendix B of the JCQ Post results Services document.
Review of marking of externally assessed components (Service 2)
This is a check that our examiners have marked externally assessed components correctly and includes:
- a clerical check (Service 1)
- a review of marking of units/components by a senior examiner
You can ask us to review the marking of exam papers for individual candidates and the results for each candidate will be reported separately. This service isn't available for internally assessed/externally moderated coursework components.
Candidates’ marks or grades can go up, down or stay the same.
The deadline for completion is within 20 calendar days of receiving the request.
To get a copy of the reviewed exam paper, you should request an Access to Script (ATS) service at the same time as submitting the Service P2 request. There is a fee for this additional service.
The deadline for us to receive your request for a review of marking is 28 September.
Centres must obtain written candidate consent for clerical re-checks and
reviews of marking, as with these services candidates’ marks and subject grades
may be lowered. Candidate consent must be obtained after the publication of results.
Candidates must be informed that their marks and subject grades could go
down as well as up and must provide their written consent before a request is
submitted. (A suggested form for centres to use is included as Appendix A of the JCQ Post-results Guide).
For help with:
- free support and networking
- free resources
- paid-for resources from Pearson
- paid-for resources from Hodder
- other paid-for resources
For help with:
- recorded feedback training
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
Webinar 1
Paul Gilligan, CEO and co-founder of the Magical Mushroom Company, shares his thoughts about innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable futures.
Webinar 2
Priscilla Israel, COO and co-founder of STICKY, shares her thoughts about digital technology changing the face of transactions, innovation and
entrepreneurship.
Each webinar has been divided up into short snippets which relate to an aspect of the specification.
Webinar 3
Richard North, President of the Wow Stuff company, shares his insights into the competitive world of product innovation in the toy industry.
Webinar 4
Ria Sejpal, Founder & Creative Director of the sustainable fashion company Lilabare, shares her passion for local, regenerative and circular fashion systems.
Webinar 5
Emma Sweeting, Founder of Sweetings Greetings share insights into the world of personalised art products that bring delight to customers.
New case studies uploaded on Tuesday mornings using the Financial Times as the main source.
There are twenty eight case studies available.
| Case study | Topic areas - Theme 1 | Topic areas - Theme 2 | |
| 1 | Philips | 2.5.1 Organisational structures 2.5.4 Motivation 2.4.2 Understanding business performance 2.4.1 Business calculations 2.3.3 Managing quality |
|
| 2 | Deliveroo | 1.4.3 The marketing mix 1.5.4 The economy and business 1.5.5 External influences |
2.2.2 Price 2.3.2 Working with suppliers |
| 3 | Tik Tok | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.1.3 The role of business enterprise 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.2.3 Market segmentation 1.4.2 Business location 1.5.2 Technology and business |
2.2.4 Place 2.3.4 The sales process |
| 4 | Adidas | 1.1.3The role of business enterprise 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.4.3 The marketing mix 1.5.3 Legislation and business |
2.1.4 Ethics, the environment and business 2.2.1 Product 2.2.3 Promotion |
| 5 | Joules | 1.1.2 Risk and reward 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.5.4 The economy and business 1.5.5 External influences |
|
| 6 | BP | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.5.2 Technology and business |
2.1.2 Changes in business aims and objectives 2.1.3 Business and globalisation 2.1.4 Ethics, the environment and business 2.3.1 Business operations 2.5.2 Effective recruitment 2.5.3 Effective training and development |
| 7 | Amazon | 1.5.4 The economy and business | 2.1.2 Changes in business aims and objectives 2.4.2 Understanding business performance 2.5.2 Effective recruitment |
| 8 | Primark | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.3.2 Business revenues, costs and profits 1.5.4 The economy and business 1.4.2 Business location 1.5.2 Technology and business |
2.1.2 Changes in business aims and objectives 2.1.4 Ethics, the environment and business 2.2.4 Place |
| 9 | NHS | 2.5.1 Organisational structures 2.5.2 Effective recruitment 2.5.4 Motivation |
|
| 10 | Ford | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.1.3 The role of business enterprise 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.5.2 Technology and business 1.5.5 External influences |
2.1.4 Ethics, the environment and business 2.2.1 Product 2.3.1 Business operations |
| 11 | Halfords | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.1.3 The role of business enterprise |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.1.2 Changes in business aims and objectives 2.5.2 Effective recruitment |
| 12 | Wilko | 1.3.2 Business revenues, costs and profits 1.3.3 Cash and cash-flow 1.3.4 Sources of business finance 1.4.2 Business location 1.5.4 The economy and business |
2.4.1 Business calculations 2.4.2 Understanding business performance |
| 13 | Boohoo | 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.3.2 Business revenues, costs and profits 1.4.2 Business location 1.5.4 The economy and business |
2.4.1 Business calculations 2.4.2 Understanding business performance |
| 14 | Workforce management | 1.5.1 Business stakeholders 1.5.3 Legislation and business |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.5.2 Effective recruitment 2.5.3 Effective training and development |
| 15 | Office working | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.4.2 Business location |
2.1.4 Ethics, the environment and business 2.5.1 Organisational structures 2.5.2 Effective recruitment |
| 16 | Diageo | 1.2.3 Market segmentation 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.3.4 Sources of business finance |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.2.2 Price |
| 17 | Pandora | 1.4.2 Business location 1.4.3 The marketing mix 1.5.4 The economy and business 1.5.5 External influences |
2.2.4 Place 2.2.5 Using the marketing mix to make business decisions |
| 18 | Brewdog | 1.4.2 Business location 1.5.4 The economy and business 1.5.5 External influence |
2.1.3 Business and globalisation 2.5.4 Motivation |
| 19 | Airlines | 1.5.3 Legislation and business 1.5.4 The economy and business |
2.1.2 Changes in business aims and objectives 2.1.3 Business and globalisation 2.1.4 Ethics, the environment and business |
| 20 | Nestle | 1.3.2 Business revenues, costs and profits 1.5.4 The economy and business 1.5.5 External influences |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.4.1 Business calculations 2.4.2 Understanding business performance |
| 21 | Inflation | 1.3.2 Business revenues, costs and profits 1.5.4 The economy and business 1.5.5 External influences |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.1.3 Business and globalisation 2.3.2 Working with suppliers |
| 22 | Starbucks | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.1.3 The role of business enterprise 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.4.1 The options for start-up and small businesses 1.5.5 External influences |
2.1.1 Business growth |
| 23 | Just Eat | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.5.3 Legislation and business 1.5.4 The economy and business |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.1.4 Ethics, the environment and business 2.5.1 Organisational structures 2.5.2 Effective recruitment 2.5.4 Motivation |
| 24 | B & Q | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.3.2 Business revenues, costs and profits 1.4.2 Business location 1.4.3 The marketing mix 1.5.4 The economy and business |
2.1.2 Changes in business aims and objectives 2.2.4 Place 2.3.4 The sales process 2.4.1 Business calculations |
| 25 | Vodafone | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.5.1 Business stakeholders |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.3.4 The sales process 2.5.2 Effective recruitment 2.5.3 Effective training and development |
| 26 | Lloyds | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.4.2 Business location 1.5.1 Business stakeholders |
2.5.1 Organisational structures 2.5.4 Motivation |
| 27 | Deloitte and PWC | 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.4.2 Business location 1.5.1 Business stakeholders 1.5.5 External influences |
2.1.2 Changes in business aims and objectives 2.5.1 Organisational structures 2.5.2 Effective recruitment 2.5.3 Effective training and development 2.5.4 Motivation |
| 28 | John Lewis | 1.3.2 Business revenues, costs and profits 1.3.4 Sources of business finance 1.4.1 The options for start-up and small businesses 1.5.1 Business stakeholders |
2.5.4 Motivation |
These booklets offer a basic template for teachers and learners and include:
- specification content
- key terms
- a case study
- exam-style questions
- explanations of command verbs
The booklets can be customised by adding images, a school logo, and further questions. If you look on the qualification page you will see that there are two files for Topic 1.4.1. One of them has been customised to provide an example of how this can be done.
They really are an excellent resource.
This is a provisional timetable.
Any feedback on provisional timetables should be sent to timetables@pearson.com.
For help with:
- free support and networking
- free resources
- paid-for resources
For help with:
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
International GCSE Business will have the first onscreen assessment available from 2024.
Make sure you’re signed up for the latest onscreen assessment news to find out how to register your school.
International GCSE Business is in the last group of subjects to make a modular route available to learners from September 2025.
This means that we will have both a modular and a linear route to achieve this qualification.
If you are happy with the linear approach, there is no need to move to the modular route; our linear International GCSEs will continue to be offered and taken widely by learners around the world.
However, if you believe the modular route will be of benefit to your learners, this will be available from September 2025 with the first exams in May/June 2026.
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Business: Welcome to Pearson
This online training is designed for teachers who are new to delivering the International GCSE Business specification.
Module 1 focuses on teaching the course and will give you an understanding of the content of the qualification and how to cover it, course/lesson planning, understanding the assessment and preparing students for it, and a brief overview of support from Pearson available to teachers.
Module 2 will give you an understanding of how the content is assessed by reviewing the assessment objectives and mark schemes, practise applying the mark schemes using exemplar student work, as well as an understanding of how marks were determined.
Module 1: 3 October 2023 at 13:00 - 15:00 GMT
Module 2: 10 October 2023 at 13:00 - 15:00 GMT
Understanding assessment and improving delivery in International GCSE Business
In this training delegates will:
- Be introduced to the idea of assessment objectives: what are they and why they are used when writing examination papers.
- Analyse recent question papers and learn which types of question match the different assessment objectives.
- Investigate different assessment objectives, considering how questions that use a levels-based mark scheme have been answered by looking at feedback from previous exam series.
- Discuss strategies for teaching to try and make sure students can access questions targeting different assessment objectives.
Module 1: 26 September 2023 at 08:00 - 10:00 GMT
Module 2: 28 September 2023 at 08:00 - 10:00 GMT
We're introducing a regular International GCSE November series, first running in November 2023. The November series is being introduced to best meet the needs of students requiring International GCSE exam opportunities outside of the full May/June series, and it will replace the existing January series from 2024. This will result in just May/June and November series going forward for International GCSE.
Why are we moving to a November exam series?
Due to the pandemic, circumstances meant that we needed to follow a November International GCSE exam series in 2020, 2021 and 2022. As the November series seemed to be well received, we consulted schools to understand whether there was a preference for a permanent November exam series or reverting to January.
November was the preferred option for most schools; not just for resits, but also for learners studying on a January–December academic year.
The timetable is below.
This is a provisional timetable.
Any feedback on provisional timetables should be sent to timetables@pearson.com.
For help with:
- free support and networking
- free resources
- paid-for resources from Pearson
- paid-for resources from Hodder
- other paid-for resources
For help with:
- recorded feedback training
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
Webinar 1
Paul Gilligan, CEO and co-founder of the Magical Mushroom Company, shares his thoughts about innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable futures.
Webinar 2
Priscilla Israel, COO and co-founder of STICKY, shares her thoughts about digital technology changing the face of transactions, innovation and
entrepreneurship.
Each webinar has been divided up into short snippets which relate to an aspect of the specification.
Webinar 3
Richard North, President of the Wow Stuff company, shares his insights into the competitive world of product innovation in the toy industry.
Webinar 4
Ria Sejpal, Founder & Creative Director of the sustainable fashion company Lilabare, shares her passion for local, regenerative and circular fashion systems.
Webinar 5
Emma Sweeting, Founder of Sweetings Greetings share insights into the world of personalised art products that bring delight to customers.
New case studies uploaded on Tuesday mornings using the Financial Times as the main source.
There are twenty eight case studies available.
| Case Study | Theme 1 | Theme 2 | Theme 3 | Theme 4 | |
| 1 | Nestle | 1.2.1 Demand 1.3.5 Marketing strategies |
2.3.1 Profit 2.5.1 Economic influences |
3.4.3 Shareholders versus stakeholders | |
| 2 | Transatlantic Travel | 1.1.1 How competition affects the market 1.1.2 Market positioning 1.3.2 Ways to build a brand |
2.5.1 Exchange rates | ||
| 3 | Heinz | 1.1.1 Market share |
2.3.1 Ways to improve profitability |
3.1.4 Impact of external influences | |
| 4 | Instagram |
1.3.2 Branding and promotion | 2.5.2 Legislation | 3.4.4 Business ethics | |
| 5 | Primark | 4.3.1 Marketing 4.3.3 Cultural factors 4.4.2 Ethics |
|||
| 6 | Next | 1.4.1 Approaches to staffing | 2.3.2 Business failure 2.4.3 Stock control |
3.2.2 Mergers and takeovers | |
| 7 | Amazon | 1.4.2 Recruitment, selection and training | 2.2.1 Sales forecasting 2.3.1 Profit 2.4.1 Production, productivity and efficiency |
||
| 8 | Chicken | 1.2.2 Factors that lead to a change in supply 1.2.3 Markets |
2.2.3 Break even | 3.1.4 Impact of external influences | 4.1.2 International trade and business growth |
| 9 | Honda | 1.1.1 The market 1.3.3 Pricing strategies |
4.2.4 Reasons for global mergers and Joint ventures | ||
| 10 | Renault | 1.1.3 Market positioning 1.3 Marketing mix and strategy |
2.3.1 Profit 2.5.1 Economic influences |
||
| 11 | AnMouf | 1.2.1 Demand 1.2.3 Markets |
3.1.4 Impact of external influences | ||
| 12 | Asda |
1.3.4 Distribution 1.4.1 Approaches to staffing 1.4.2 Recruitment, selection and training 1.4.3 Organisational design |
|||
| 13 | Amazon Warehouses | 1.4.1 Approaches to staffing 1.4.3 Organisational design |
4.4.1 Impact of MNCs on the local economy | ||
| 14 | 1.4.1 Approaches to staffing 1.4.4 Motivation in theory and practice |
2.5.2 Employee legislation | |||
| 15 | Doc Martens | 2.3.1 Profit 2.5.1 Economic influences |
4.3.1 Marketing 4.2.3 Assessment of a country as a production location |
||
| 16 | Halfords | 1.3.5 Marketing strategy | 2.5.1 Economic influences | 3.1.4 Impact of external influences | 4.1.5 Trading blocs 4.2.5 Global competitiveness |
| 17 | Women entrepreneurs | 1.5.2 Entrepreneurial motives and characteristics 1.5.6 Moving from entrepreneur to leader |
|||
| 18 | Food shortages | 1.2.2 Supply 1.2.3 Markets |
4.1.5 Trading blocs | ||
| 19 | Online to Offline shopping | 1.3.4 Distribution 1.3.5 Marketing strategy |
2.5.3 The competitive environment | 3.1.2 Theories of corporate strategy 3.2.2 Mergers and takeovers |
|
| 20 | BrewDog | 1.4.1 Approaches to staffing |
3.1.2 Theories of corporate strategy |
4.2.1 Conditions that prompt trade 4.2.4 Reasons for global mergers or joint ventures 4.3.3 Cultural/social factors |
|
| 21 | Nestle | 1.3.1 Product/service design | 2.5.1 Economic influences 2.5.3 The competitive environment |
3.1.2 Theories of corporate strategy 3.4.3 Shareholders verses stakeholders |
|
| 22 | Prime | 2.2.1 Sales forecasting 2.5.2 Legislation |
3.1.4 Impact of external influences 3.2.1 Growth |
||
| 23 | Tik Tok | 1.4.1 Approaches to staffing 1.4.4 Motivation in theory and practice |
|||
| 24 | 2.1.4 Planning 2.2.2 Sales, revenue, and costs 2.3.2 Liquidity |
||||
| 25 | Meta | 1.4.1 Approaches to staffing | 2.4.1 Production, productivity and efficiency 2.5.2 Legislation |
||
| 26 | Fast Fashion | 1.3.1 Product/service design |
4.4.2 Ethics 4.2.1 Conditions that prompt trade |
||
| 27 | Premier Inn | 1.4.4 Motivation in theory and practice 1.5.5 Business choices |
2.3.1 Profit 2.4.2 Capacity utilisation |
3.1.4 Impact of external influences | 4.4.2 Ethics |
| 28 | Kirin | 3.1.2 Theories of corporate strategy 3.2.2 Mergers and takeovers |
4.2.2 Assessment of a country as a market |
From 2023 onwards, the wording of the level-based descriptors for the 8, 10 and 12 mark questions will change to provide transparency in examiners’ marking approach and greater clarity for teachers and students.
These exemplars have been produced, following teacher feedback, to ensure the approach to marking is accessible to both teachers and students in preparation for final course assessment.
The senior team for GCE Business is made up of practising teachers, so we understand how important it can be to share our knowledge, understanding and the practice of marking, especially with respect to answers relating to Levels of Response questions.
Contained in this booklet is a selection of student responses taken from the summer of 2022 series, complete with the level and appropriate marks awarded. After each response is a commentary which should help to explain the level and raw mark awarded.
These selected responses aim to illustrate to teachers and learners the difference between Level 3 and level 4 responses, to clarify examiners’ approach to marking and to help students access the higher mark bands.
This document considers:
- key assessment differences between the specifications
- key content differences between the specifications
The Economics Factory now has digital versions of the Anforme A level Business books.
This is a provisional timetable.
Any feedback on provisional timetables should be sent to timetables@pearson.com.
For help with:
- free support and networking
- free resources
- paid-for resources
For help with:
- building your own question papers (examWizard)
- the key command verbs
- grade boundaries and statistics
This online training is designed for teachers who are new to delivering the International Advanced level Business specification.
Module 1 focuses on teaching the course and will give you an understanding of the content of the qualification and how to cover it, course/lesson planning, understanding the assessment and preparing students for it, and a brief overview of support from Pearson available to teachers.
Module 2 will give you an understanding of how the content is assessed by reviewing the assessment objectives and mark schemes, practise applying the mark schemes using exemplar student work, as well as an understanding of how marks were determined.
Module 1: 07 November 2023 at 13:00 - 15:00 GMT
Module 2: 14 November 2023 at 13:00 - 15:00 GMT
This online training is designed for teachers who are delivering the International A Level Business specification.
This training will give you an understanding of how assessments are structured for the qualification and how your teaching can be adapted to help your students’ performance on examination papers.
The training is comprised of two 'standalone' modules which are booked separately.
Module 1: 21 November 2023 at 13:00 - 15:00 GMT
Module 2: 28 November 2023 at 13:00 - 15:00 GMT
This is a provisional timetable.
Any feedback on provisional timetables should be sent to timetables@pearson.com.
Subject advisor
Colin Leith
Business
