February 2023 Drama update
Dear colleagues,
I hope that the spring term has been going well for you and your students. As we approach half term, here is your February 2023 update with all the latest news on our GCSE Drama and A level Drama and Theatre qualifications.
In this update you will find:
Component 2 update
The Component 2 assessment window is now well underway. The window opened on 30th January and will run until 31st March 2023.
Please be aware that we are unable to allocate an examiner to your centre until you have made exam entries.
Exam entries for Component 2 can be made from 14th November 2022.
The closing date for exam entries for UK centres is 21st February 2023.
The closing date for exam entries for international centres is 21st March 2023.
Once exam entries have been made, it usually takes a few days for the examiner to be allocated.
For further information on Component 2 and the administration of the qualification, please refer to the Administrative Support Guides below
Admin Support Guides and updated CCIS form for GCSE C2
We have updated the Component 2 CCIS forms for GCSE to make it easier to capture the information for a student's two extracts.
Please note: if you have used the previous version of the CCIS form, you aren't required to move to the new form.
The Administrative Support Guides for GCSE Drama and A level Drama and Theatre include information on:
- key dates
- administrative guidance for all three Components
- guidance on using Learner Work Transfer (LWT) platform for Components 1 and 2
- support on how to contact us
Key Extracts
We require centres to sign a declaration that all key extracts studied by students meet the requirements to be from a scene or a moment that is significant to the text as a whole and at least 10 minutes in length when performed. Centres must submit the parts of these key extracts that have been used for performance, but not the entire key extract itself. This means that if a student were performing a monologue, you would scan a copy of the one/two pages of the monologue, rather than a 10+mins extract.
If you are having a visiting examiner, you submit these before the visit. If you are recording the performances, you submit after the recording has taken place.
Please refer to the Admin Support Guide for more information about this process.
Component 3 live theatre evaluation update
In order to retain comparability and fairness, and to keep the 500 words of notes in the exam, we are not making any changes to Component 3. This decision has been made based on feedback from the survey we shared. The response to the survey was huge, and the majority of Drama teachers voted in favour of keeping the live theatre and notes, rather than allowing streamed or recorded performances and removing the notes.
Experiencing live theatre is embedded in the subject criteria and therefore this requirement cannot be removed from the qualification. At the end of the course, and by 15 May, centres need to confirm that students have been given the opportunity to see live theatre.
In April 2023, we will send an electronic declaration form to all centres with entries for the summer 2023 exam series, in order for you to confirm that all students have been given the opportunity to see live theatre. The deadline for the declaration to be completed is 15 May 2023.
We understand that due to the current cost of living crisis, and other factors such as location, some centres face huge difficulty in trying to take students to see live theatre. If you are in this situation and it is not possible for your students to write about a live theatre production for component 3, please do get in touch with us at drama.assessment@pearson.com to ask permission to use a streamed or recorded production. We will treat each request on an individual basis. If you have already contacted us this academic year and been given permission to use a streamed or recorded live performance for the 2023 exam, you do not need to contact us again.
No set texts allowed in Component 2
It is not possible to use of the set texts in Component 3 as performance texts in Component 2. This applies in both GCSE and A level qualifications.
There have been quite a few requests this year for permission to use different versions of Antigone to the ones used in Component 3 in GCSE and A level (both qualifications use versions of Antigone as set texts).
It is a regulatory requirement that no set text is used in Component 2.
Even if the student is using a different set text for Component 3, it is still not permitted.
Subject advisor
Paul Webster
Drama, Theatre and Performing Arts
