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Languages

Subject update | Fri May 10 12:22:00 UTC 2024

May 2024 Languages Update

Dear Colleagues,

I hope your summer term has got off to a smooth start. By now many of you will have conducted your speaking exams and will be looking ahead to the written exams and beyond. 

Please remember you can get in contact with all of your questions about Pearson Edexcel Languages qualifications. My contact details are at the bottom of this page.

Best wishes,

Rebecca Waker
Subject Advisor for Languages
 

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GCSE French, German & Spanish 2024

We recently published the findings of our research into the scheduling of the 2026 reading and listening exams for the 2024 GCSEs in French, German and Spanish. 

We can confirm that these exams will be scheduled in separate sessions.

Read our findings

Languagenut and Pearson Edexcel are excited to present our first joint webinar miniseries!

This webinar is perfect for anyone looking to find out more about the Pearson Edexcel GCSE (2024) in French, Spanish and German, and how Languagenut can support teachers preparing their students for this qualification. This will help teachers develop their understanding of the specification content and requirements. It will also offer insight into the structure of question papers and mark criteria for all four papers.

Read more about the joint webinar

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For teachers preparing to deliver the Pearson Edexcel GCSE (2024) in French, German or Spanish from September 2024, these training sessions will support you in your planning for these new qualifications.

Delegates will:

- develop understanding of the specification content and requirements (e.g. thematic contexts, vocabulary and grammar)
- deep dive into the new elements of the qualification and better understand their mark schemes
- find out more about the support available
- have the opportunity to discuss best practice and share ideas with other teachers.

Dates for June onwards will be available for sign up soon.

Register to attend

We also have other training sessions dedicated to the new GCSEs:

Effective Phonics Teaching for the New 2024 MFL GCSE Read Aloud and Dictation Tasks

Our Spotlight on Writing session will also be repeated in the summer term, when it is available you will be able to sign up via our Professional Development Academy

French Teachers Needed for Research

Facebook Languages Qualifications Support Group

Training

In addition to any training mentioned above related to speaking and the 2024 GCSE we have the following training on offer:

I am also providing some sessions focused on the Paper 3 Independent Research Project for A Level (French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian and Russian). These are informal sessions where I will go over the requirements of this part of the exam and take your questions. Please join me if you're new to this exam, have questions you'd like answered or just want a refresher.

Thursday 23rd May

Wednesday 5th June

Exam support

#Examsspelledout is a series of short videos that take a look at the assessment process to help students, parents, carers and teachers understand how the exam process works. Questions include: the creation of exam papers; how we support students with different needs; through to finding out what happens to your exam papers after they have left your school; who marks your papers; grade boundaries and post-results support.

Explore the playlist

In case you need a reminder of the exam dates for this series, you can take a look at the timetables.

Exam timetables 2024 - All qualifications

Did you know that the most common form of candidate malpractice every exam series is the possession of a mobile phone?

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
 

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GCSE Spanish and French Tutoring

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GCSE Spanish and French tutoring

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