GCSE Religious Studies November 2022 Subject Update
Welcome to your Pearson Edexcel Religious Studies November 2022 subject update.
Hello colleagues,
Welcome to our November instalment of our email subject updates!
I wanted to take the opportunity to share some key updates, resources and information about upcoming events. If you have any questions about anything within this update or about our Religious Studies qualification, please do get in touch!
Best wishes,
Susan Currey
Religious Studies Subject Advisor
In this update,
- Summer 2023 exam timetables
- GCSE: Upcoming event - Insight into (d) evaluation questions
- GCSE Celebrating success: High-achieving school results
- International GCSE: 2023 events
- A level: 12-mark 'Assess' questions video
- Resources for previous 'Assessment and Marking' events
- Access to Scripts: Deadline
- Become an examiner for GCSE or A level Religious Studies
- Useful videos from Culham St Gabriel's
- Feedback: How are we doing?
GCSE: Celebrating success: High-achieving school results
Maiden Erlegh entered 263 students in 2022 for GCSE Religious Studies achieving record results with over 30% achieving Level 4s in their (d) evaluation questions.
We spoke to Sian Jones (Head of Department) to both celebrate their success and ask what advice they may have for other schools.
International GCSE: 2023 events
Module 1: Introduction to International GCSE RS
Tuesday 7th February 2023
(09:00-11:00 GMT)
Cost: £FREE
Designed at giving an overview of the qualification for those who are new to teaching this course.
Booking is available at the following booking page:
Module 2: Assessment and Marking - International GCSE RS
Tuesday 21st February 2023
(09:00-11:00 GMT)
Cost: £FREE
Designed with a focus on Assessment and Marking, applying mark schemes and looking at student exemplar answers.
Booking is available at the following booking page:
A level: 12-mark 'Assess' questions video
A guidance video is now available which explores how to approach 12-mark 'Assess' questions at A level Religious Studies, which looks at example answers across our papers achieving a range of different marks and levels.
You can access the slides for this and the example answers at the links below:
Videos
Resources for previous 'Assessment and Marking' events
In November, we ran two events focused on 'Assessment and Marking' (one for GCSE and one focused on A level). If you were unable to attend these, it is likely they will run again later in the academic year but we wanted to make the slides and resources available for you.
You can access these at the links below:
GCSE 'Assessment and Marking' resources
This training event took place on Wednesday 16th November 2022. You can access slides and resources for this by using the link below:
A level 'Assessment and Marking' resources
This training event took place on Wednesday 9th November 2022. You can access slides and resources for this by using the link below:
Access to Scripts: deadline
Edexcel offers a free 'Access to scripts' service following exam series. This allows teachers to download (with student consent) their students' scripts to see how they performed in the exam and what marks were awarded.
This service for the Summer 2022 exam series ends on December 16th so please make sure you have used this prior to then. To find out more about this service, please see the link below which will provide further information:
The Portal can only be accessed by Edexcel Online users who have the Exam Viewer profile ticked on Edexcel Online. Exams officers can give teachers access to Exam Viewer.
Scripts do not have examiner annotation on them. The marked script allows teachers to evaluate how the student performed on particular questions in relation to what they have been taught; the Principal Examiner's report and the exemplars that we make available demonstrate how the mark scheme is applied.
If scripts have been marked ‘traditionally’ (i.e. not online), you will need to request them, free of charge, by 16 December 2022, via the Post Results section of Edexcel Online as in previous exam series.
Candidate consent
Candidate consent is required before requesting script copies, as per section 4.2 of the JCQ's Post-results services guide. Candidate consent can only be obtained after results have been published.
Become an examiner with us!
We are starting our examiner recruitment and are looking for specialists who are able to mark GCSE Religious Studies (Specifications A & B), International GCSE Religious Studies and A Level Religious Studies.
Experience/qualifications needed
- You will have one academic year's worth of teaching experience:
a. within the last 8 years
b. within the relevant qualification and subject
- You will have a degree or equivalent
- You will be a qualified teacher
This is an invaluable opportunity to develop your knowledge and understanding of the subject area and assessment process, building your confidence as a teacher and assessor.
Useful videos from Culham St Gabriel's
If you haven't yet seen them, I would highly recommend exploring the newly commisioned promotional videos on the importance of studying RS from a range of different perspectives (CEOs, Lords, News broadcasters, MPs, lawyers and more). They are a fantastic resource for teachers!
Subject advisor
Susan Currey
Religious Studies
