October 2026 Psychology subject update
Hi everyone,
Welcome back to a your October Psychology update! We have some general news items this month, along with the usual upcoming training events and an opportunity for students to find out how to make the most of lectures and join the BPS as e-Subscribers!
As ever, please don't hesitate to get in touch if I might be able to help with any aspect of your teaching - follow the link below to the bottom of the page to book a Teams call with me or to get in touch via email.
Best wishes,
Tim Lawrence
Psychology Subject Advisor
This update includes:
- Key dates
- General updates: Visual Literacy week, JCQ results analysis and GCSE reform.
- New CPD Opportunity: a Psychology Community of Practice - let us know if you are interested in our proposed online meetings.
- BPS Webinar for students: how to get the most out of lectures.
- Training and professional development: 'all set...' events in September and exam feedback training in November.
- FAQs from psychology teachers
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 16 October | Entry deadline for IAL Psychology January 2027 series |
| 10 November | A Level Psychology Exam Insights training* |
| 18 November | GCSE Psychology Exam Insights training |
| 11 December | Deadline for Access to Scripts |
*Exam Insights training for IAL Psychology will be available around this time as a pre-recorded event.
Final exam timetables for the summer 2027 exam series are available on our webpage linked below.
Are you interested in exploring the part that art and visual literacy can play in psychology education?
Join Art UK for a week of free events, webinars and resources exploring the importance of visual literacy in education and beyond.
Discover practical classroom approaches, hear from experts, and explore how visual literacy can help students develop critical thinking, communication and
creativity skills.
Explore the programme and book your free place.
JCQ have now published summer 2026 results on their website for GCSE and A level.
The results provide insights into student entries and attainment in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. JCQ has published results data for 26 years and all the data is on their website to facilitate comparisons.
For the first time JCQ has also published interactive data dashboards for A levels and GCSEs. These dashboards are being piloted with GCSE and A level data in the first instance.
Visit the JCQ GCSE interactive results dashboard
Visit the JCQ A level interactive results dashboard
How clear is your specification about what to teach, and how deeply? We're redesigning how our GCSE specifications are written, and we want to hear from teachers before we start, not after.
Our short survey takes about 12 minutes. It asks what works in the specifications you use now, what gets in the way, and what would help. There are no right answers, and we're as interested in what doesn't work as in what does.
It's anonymous, and open to all teachers, regardless of the exam board that you’re currently with.
We are exploring a new idea: bringing psychology teachers together to enable sharing of best practice, and to draw on your expertise when developing and improving our course offer.
- For teachers of GCSE, A Level, International A Level and BTEC Applied Psychology.
- Meeting regularly online, for example three times a year in November, March and June.
- Input (planning and presenting) from teachers and Pearson staff.
If you would be interested in taking part, please complete our expression of
interest form using the link below!
A Level Psychology students may be interested in this webinar from the BPS, on 28 October at 5pm. It's aimed at psychology students of all levels, and aims to support them in developing the skills needed to navigate and use lectures effectively. A Level students can also join the BPS as e-Subscribers for £18 per year.
Live, free, online exam feedback events in November are now available for booking for A Level Psychology (on 10 November) and for GCSE Psychology (on 18 November). Pre-recorded exam feedback training for IAL Psychology will also be available around this time.
Follow the link below to find out more.
The link above will also show options to access recordings of past training content, also available on the pages below. You can access our new YouTube playlists for A Level and GCSE Psychology via the following document.
We also provide centre-based training opportunities. If this is something you would like to explore, please visit our training page below.
Since our current GCSE and A Level specifications were launched, new editions of the DSM and ICD classificatory systems for mental health issues have been published.
Examiners are conscious of the fact that textbooks and other sources may contain information on the previous versions, and therefore answers based on these will continue to be accepted.
If you prefer to teach about the current versions, answers based on these will also be accepted.
Great question! For A Level teachers we have published, over the past year, a number of free worksheet resources based on British Psychological Society Research Digest article summaries. These short articles on recently published research are accompanied by examples of exam questions that they could be used to answer, along with exemplar responses and examiner comments. As IAL exam questions follow the same format and rules as UK A Level ones, IAL teachers will find many of these relevant to their teaching too.
Subject advisor
Tim Lawrence
Psychology and international Science
