June 2024 Design and Technology update
Here is your June 2024 update for GCSE and A level Design and Technology.
I hope that the summer exam season is going well for you and your students at your centre. A level D&T exam has concluded and GCSE D&T exam is scheduled for 18 June! Good luck to your students.
This months update highlights the latest for you and includes the contextual challenges for GCSE D&T.
1 June - Contextual challenge release
As per the GCSE D&T NEA timeline, on 1 June 2024 contextual challenges for Summer 2025 series were published. You can access this and a support material to help your students unpack the contextual challenges from the link below.
| Qualification and component | Date and time |
|---|---|
| GCSE Design and Technology - Component 1 (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F) | 18 June, am |
Materials to support revision
| GCSE D&T Revision |
|---|
| Maths guide |
| Student book |
| Hodder my revision notes |
| PG online resources |
| Mocks marking training event files |
Summer 2024 exam materials release date
Following on from the summer 2024 exams, question papers, mark schemes and examiner reports will be released on the following dates under silver padlock.
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 2 July | Question papers released (uploaded) |
| 16 July | Mark schemes released (uploaded) |
| 20 August | Examiners' reports for A level |
| 27 August | Examiners' reports for GCSE |
Exam Wizard
An online resource containing a huge bank of past paper questions and support materials to help you create your own mock exams and tests as full papers or based on specification topics. Available for a range of GCSE and A level Design and Technology, including all past papers, SAM and AdSAM.
Summer 2024 support for students
Help your students feel as prepared as possible for the upcoming exam season.
In addition to all the support you provide, both Ofqual, JCQ and Pearson have a range of information to help inform and guide your students during this busy time. Please take a look at the information we’ve summarised below and pass it on to your students.
Support from Ofqual
The Ofqual Student Guide 2024 provides students with information about this year’s arrangements for GCSE, AS and A level qualifications, and explains what support is in place when taking exams and assessments.
Read the Ofqual Student Guide 2024
Support from JCQ
The JCQ has a range of information and support for students – from coursework and onscreen exams to written exams, along with a checklist for exam day.
Take a look at all the support JCQ have to offer for students
Support from Pearson
As the revision season is now fully under way and students begin to turn their focus towards the summer exam series, we’d like to share our Getting ready for exams guide that includes some top tips and advice including:
- preparing for exams
- what happens on exam day
- where to find further support
- what happens once exams are over
Take a look at the guide and please pass it on to your student
You can stay up to date with all our support for 2024 on our Qualifications
According to data published by Ofqual, possession of a mobile phone accounted for 44.5% of all cases of student malpractice - 2,180 cases - in the summer 2023 series. This was an increase on the 1,825 cases seen in the summer 2022 series.
The JCQ awarding bodies have set out the agreed sanctions for the different types of candidate malpractice, including for possession of a mobile phone. These can be found in Appendix 6 of the JCQ Suspected Malpractice Policies and Procedures.
You can see that the sanctions for possession of a mobile phone are severe, because we need to maintain the security and integrity of our exams:
- mobile phone in the candidate’s possession but no evidence of being used by the candidate – loss of marks
- mobile phone in the candidate’s possession and evidence of being used by the candidate – disqualification
We really want to see a reduction in this form of malpractice, which has such a significant impact on so many candidates. Please ensure that you’ve taken the following steps to help your learners avoid committing malpractice:
- clear communication to learners and their parents about items prohibited in exams, including mobile phones
- clear publication and display of the JCQ exam room posters - sharing the JCQ Preparing to sit your exams infographic with learners and their parents
- having a member of your centre’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) deliver a pre-exam series assembly, to clearly explain the expectations of learners and the exam rules
- ensuring you have in place, and learners know about, a process for the safe collection and storage of their mobile phones during exams
Training
We are currently working on our training offer for the new academic year to support you in your delivery and assessment and we will inform centres once these are available. In the meantime, if you would like to find out more about the course or you have new members of staff joining your department, you can access the New to Edexcel recorded training and also past training materials. See inks below
A level Theory content support survey
We aim to offer support for teaching the theoretical components of the A Level Design and Technology curriculum.
This short survey will identify the need for such support and help us customize it to
address specific topic areas within the curriculum.
Subject advisor
Evren Alibaba
Design and Technology
