November 2024 Business update
Welcome to this November 2024 update!
I hope that you have been able to spend some time away from work during the half-term. This update has been simplified to reduce the content and to highlight the links to the delivery and assessment support pages for the four qualifications. These pages can serve as useful reference points if you are teaching one of our qualifications.
I hope that you are able to find useful information in this update.
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 6 November | GCSE Business: Teaching Calculations and Avoiding Common Pitfalls |
| 7 November | International GCSE Business Exam Insights May/June 2024 |
| 11 November | A Level Business: Reflections from Paper 3 |
| 14 November | International A Level Business Exam Insights May/June 2024 |
| 13 December | Last date to use the Access To Scripts service via Script Viewer. |
GCSE Business |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Delivery support focuses on free support materials, networking and both free and paid-for resources. There are links to Pearson, Hodder and other publishers.
International GCSE Business |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Assessment support focuses on assessment news and tools, support in understanding the command verbs, and information about grade boundaries and statistics.
GCSE Business
The 2024-2025 network events are listed below.
| 6 November |
Teaching Calculations and Avoiding Common Pitfalls |
| 11 December | Mock Marking Live |
| 22 January | Supporting Lower Achievers |
| 26 February | Stretch and Challenge in 9- and 12-Mark Questions |
| 19 March | The Skill of Application |
| 30 April | Planning for a Two-Year Course and Developing Skills |
International GCSE Business
Case studies from the FT
The FT case studies are appropriate for both GCSE and International GCSE. The mapping in the table (and in the case studies themselves) is to the GCSE specification.
International GCSE Business teachers may find it useful to observe that GCSE Theme 1 looks at small businesses (the focus of Paper 1 on the International GCSE), and that GCSE Theme 2 looks at larger businesses (the focus of Paper 2 on the International GCSE).
The new case studies this year start with 43 and 44. These can be found alongside the case studies from the last two years.
| Case study | Theme 1 | Theme 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Greggs | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.2.4 The competitive environment 1.3.1 Business aims and objectives 1.4.3 The marketing mix |
2.1.1 Business growth 2.2.1 Product 2.2.3 Promotion 2.2.5 Using the marketing mix to make business decisions 2.4.2 Understanding business performance |
| 44 | Milk | 1.1.1 The dynamic nature of business 1.2.1 Customer needs 1.2.3 Market segmentation 1.2.4 The competitive environment |
2.2.1 Product 2.2.5 Using the marketing mix to make business decisions |
GCSE Business
The GCSE Business Facebook group has over 3,000 members. It is a private group (for teachers only) and when you apply to join your name will be checked to confirm that you have an Edexcel Online account.
Teachers use this group to ask questions, share resources and exchange ideas.
International GCSE Business
This small Facebook group has just over 40 members. Why not join and network with colleagues teaching this qualification?
GCSE Business
International GCSE Business
November 2024 timetable
May 2025 timetable
November 2025 provisional timetable
Any feedback on this provisional timetable should be sent to timetables@pearson.com.
| A level Business |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Delivery support focuses on free support materials, networking and both free and paid-for resources. There are links to Pearson, Hodder and other publishers.
| IAL Business |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Assessment support focuses on assessment news and tools, support in understanding the command verbs, and information about grade boundaries and statistics.
A level Business
The 2024 - 2025 network events are listed below.
| 11 November | Reflections from Paper 3 |
| 02 December | The Skill of Application |
| 27 January | Quantitative Skills |
| 24 February | Tackling Levels-based Questions |
| 10 March | Avoiding Common Mistakes/Pitfalls |
| 31 March | Planning a 2-year A Level Business course |
IAL Business
Case studies from recent news stories
As well as the FT case studies available on the qualification page there are also case studies and activities from recent FT articles available in the dropbox folder.
The mapping in these case studies is for A level Business but IAL Business teachers might be interested to know that the four 'themes' in the A level Business specification correspond very closely to the four units in the IAL Business specification. The command verbs used in the questions are from A level Business so these will need adapting for IAL Business.
| Case study | Theme 1 | Theme 2 | Theme 3 | Theme 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | Chinese manufacturing | 2.1.4 | 3.1.3 | ||
| 42 | IKEA | 1.1.2 | 2.5.3 |
A level Business
The A level Business Facebook group has over 2,000 members. It is a private group (for teachers only) and when you apply to join your name will be checked to confirm that you have an Edexcel Online account.
Teachers use this group to ask questions, share resources and exchange ideas.
IAL Business
This new Facebook group has just been launched. Why not join and network with colleagues teaching this qualification?
A level Business
IAL Business
January 2025 exam series - timetable
May/June 2025 timetable
October 2025 timetable
January 2026 timetable
Secondary schools around the world can get free online access to the Financial Times, with articles, games and multi-media content on many topics to enrich studies and improve exam performance in business, economics, politics, geography, psychology and other topics.
The FT can help strengthen global and media literacy, and offer insights into preparation for further study and the world of work. It also has competitions, an online work experience programme and teacher selected articles with suggested questions, alongside resources developed by Pearson/Edexcel.
Details at www.ft.com/schools . A staff member can check if their school is already registered and to create student or staff accounts at www.ft.com/schoolsarefree
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 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.
The Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards (OPLAs) recognise and celebrate the highest achieving learners at International GCSE and International A level.
There is 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.
App-based multi-factor authentication for all users of Edexcel Online was introduced in December, to protect your data and maintain the integrity of our assessments.
This replaced the existing web based multi-factor authentication, and became mandatory on 5 December. All users require access to a smart phone device to receive a verification code to access Edexcel Online.
Based on feedback received this graphic was created to answer some common questions.
Additional guidance on using app based MFA to access the Pearson Portal can be found in the Pearson Portal Authenticator support article.
Multi factor authentication was 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, 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.
If you teach any of our Economics or BTEC qualifications, you may wish to check out the monthly updates.
Subject advisor
Colin Leith
Business
