Edexcel GCSE (9 1) Sciences FAQs

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1 Edexcel GCSE (9 1) Sciences FAQs What s changing, and when Practical work and the assessment of practical skills The new maths requirements The new exams How we ll support you The impact on other Key Stage 4 qualifications What s changing, and when 1. When will GCSEs in science be changing? All Awarding Body specifications for the GCSE science subjects will be changing from September 2016, for first assessment in summer The final GCSE exams for the current specifications will be in June As yet, we have no information on re-take opportunities available after this date. 2. What new GCSEs in science will be available? There will be four GCSE qualifications in science that students can sit: GCSE (9 1) Biology, GCSE (9 1) Chemistry, GCSE (9 1) Physics, GCSE (9 1) and Combined Science (Double Award). There will be no opportunity to take a single Core Science GCSE. 3. When will the new specifications be available? We ll work with Ofqual to achieve accreditation of our specifications as soon as we can. Our proposed specifications will be submitted to Ofqual and made available on our website in July Following the usual timescale, we d expect accreditation of the new qualifications to take place during the autumn term. If you haven t already, make sure you re the first to know the latest news about our qualifications just sign up to receive our GCSE Sciences s. Many of you have told us that you may want to start GCSE teaching with your Year 9 students before the specifications are accredited. From September 2015 onwards, we re also offering two terms worth of comprehensive teaching and learning materials from Pearson to help you get started with the new GCSE (9 1) Sciences *. If you re looking for materials to help start planning now, transition materials are already available, with detailed planning guidance coming soon. (See How we ll support you for more details).

2 4. Will the content be changing much? As the new specifications are based on subject content prescribed by the Department for Education, there ll be some new elements in the new GCSEs. Where possible, we re trying to ensure that the content you ve told us you like in the current GCSEs doesn t change too much. 5. Is How Science Works (HSW) still a requirement? How Science Works (HSW) has disappeared as a phrase in the new courses. However, many of the elements of How Science Works from the current GCSEs will still exist and are referred to as Working Scientifically. 6. How will the new GCSEs be assessed? The GCSE (9 1) qualifications are linear courses that will be assessed by examinations at the end of GCSE teaching. In the new qualifications, mathematical skills, practical work, knowledge and understanding of practicals, and investigative skills will be assessed in a different way to the current GCSEs. For more details, see: practical work and the assessment of practical skills, the new maths requirements, the new exams. 7. How will the new grading system work? There will be a new 9 1 grading system, with 9 being highest grade and 1 being the lowest grade. Foundation tier will cover grades 1 5, and Higher tier will cover grades 4 9. A grade 4 will be broadly equivalent to a grade C before GCSE reform. A grade 7 will be equivalent to a pre-reform grade A. 8. As Combined Science is a double award, will students get two grades? GCSE (9 1) Combined Science (Double Award) students will receive two grades, for example 7 7 or 6 6. In addition, it will be possible for students to achieve two different grades. For example, students may receive a 7 6 or a 6 5. This will not reflect different performance on different papers, but will be a grade at a midpoint. For example a 7 6 would be awarded at midway between 7 7 and 6 6. This would give a 17-point grade scale for GCSE (9 1) Combined Science (Double Award). 9. Is there a chance to have a say on the new qualifications? We want to make sure our GCSE Sciences for 2016 are shaped by you, for your students, to help them achieve their best. That s why we re working with hundreds of teachers and the science education community to design our brand-new qualifications. Many of you have already been telling us how the upcoming changes might affect you and your students, and what you d like the new courses to look like. To get involved and share your ideas with us too: join us at our free events us at ScienceTeamUpdates@pearson.com. 2

3 Practical work and the assessment of practical skills 10. Is coursework definitely going to be removed? None of the GCSE (9 1) qualifications in science will have a controlled assessment unit. Students will be expected to complete the core practicals specified in the content, and will be tested on their practical and investigative skills within written exam papers taken at the end of the GCSE course. 11. What practical work will students have to carry out? All Awarding Bodies are required to have at least eight core practical activities in each GCSE with16 in Combined Science (Double Award). The practical skills students gain from their practical work will be assessed in the written papers. While the assessment approach is different, core practicals aren t new additions to our specifications. We pioneered the use of core practicals for GCSE Sciences in 2011, and we re updating them for the new qualifications based on what you ve told us works well for you and your students. 12. What record of the students having completed the core practicals will be required? Centres will be expected to have provision for all students to complete the required practicals. Centres will need to produce a written statement confirming provision of practical work. This is slightly different to the Practical Endorsement for A levels in science subjects from Of course, as students will be assessed on their practical work in their exams, it s likely they ll want to keep a record of what they ve done to help their revision. The new maths requirements 13. What will the new maths requirements be? The proposed requirements are that mathematics should be assessed at the standard of Key Stage 3 maths in Foundation tier, and Level 1 Maths in Higher tier. There ll be a set percentage of marks in the assessments that should be awarded for mathematics. These percentages are: 10% for biology, 20% for chemistry and 30% for physics. 14. Is it true that there ll be up to 19 physics equations for students to recall and apply? Yes, this is a requirement from the Department for Education. In some questions, we ll give an equation and ask students to apply it. However, it is a requirement that some questions must ask students to both recall and then apply equations. 3

4 The new exams 15. What will the assessment model look like? Assessments will all be at the end of the course, so for most candidates this will be all of their exams in the summer of Year 11. Total assessment time for Combined Science (Double Award) will be seven hours: total assessment time for each of the separate sciences will be three-and-a-half hours. We ll release further details on the assessment model in due course. The GCSE (9 1) qualifications in science will have no controlled assessment units. Students will be expected to complete the core practicals specified in the content, and will be tested on their practical and investigative skills within the written papers. (See How is practical work and assessment of practical skills changing? for more details.) 16. How much will the structure of the papers change? Our paper structure and style of questioning has worked well for our 2011 qualifications, so we aim to retain as much of this as possible. The structure of the papers where there are a mix of multiple-choice questions, short-answer and longer-answer questions will remain. We ll also keep the same ramping of demand within questions and also across the papers (as in our current GCSEs), as it encourages students of all abilities to engage with each part of the paper and persevere through the exam. 17. Can I use the questions currently in examwizard as practice for the new GCSEs? Yes, we re looking at the questions we currently have on examwizard and are tagging the relevant ones to the new GCSE content. This means you will still be able to use the existing questions as practice, but they will come up automatically when you search using the new GCSE (9 1) specifications. How we ll support you 18. Will you be running events about the new GCSEs? Over the next few months, you can join our experts at a range of free events designed to help you prepare for the new (9 1) GCSE Sciences. There are: Free local GCSE (9 1) Sciences: Developing practical skills and maths for assessment events. At these events, you can join our GCSE specialists and delve deeper into the impact of changes to the assessment of practical skills and maths in science. You ll also be able to explore how best to support students of all abilities access and develop these skills, with the first of our free GCSE planning and classroom materials from Pearson for you to use and take away *. Free launch events. At these online events, our GCSE specialists will take you through what s changing, when with the new qualifications, and how we ll support you every step of the way. You ll also be able to learn more about the structure and content of the new specifications and hear about our proposed assessment model for the new courses. 4

5 To join us at any of these events, visit Training from Pearson, or us at You may also be interested in our paid-for professional training events designed to help you develop your students scientific literacy skills. Visit the Preparing Students for Success: Developing scientific communicators at Key Stages 3 and 4 website for more details **. 19. Will you be providing any free support materials to help with the planning and teaching of the new qualifications? We re here to support you every step of the way with the new qualifications. As ever, our free materials and events are designed to help you plan, teach and assess the new specifications with confidence. What s more, we re providing full materials from now onwards, so you have them for whenever you wish to start teaching. These include: a transition scheme available now with six weeks worth of planning and teaching materials per science to help your students make the move from Key Stage 3 to the new GCSEs. detailed planning guidance, including schemes of work and progression maps (in June 2015) free Teaching and Learning support from Pearson to help you get started with teaching GCSE (9-1) Sciences. These include two terms worth of comprehensive teaching and learning materials, complete with online student book pages, videos, animations, worksheets, assessments and differentiated lesson plans for 60 lessons. You ll be able to access these materials from September 2015 onwards, for whenever you wish to start teaching the new courses. guidance on the new maths requirements and developing students literacy skills in scientific contexts. carefully crafted materials to help your lower-ability students engage with science and make progress. 20. I start teaching GCSE Science in Year 9. What provision will you put in place for those teaching before official start date? From talking with many of you, we know many schools need materials before September 2016 in order to start planning and teaching. That s why schemes of work and progression maps will be available in June, so you have them to help plan teaching in case you re starting in September. What s more, from September 2015 onwards, there ll be free Teaching and Learning support from Pearson to help you get started with teaching GCSE (9-1) Sciences. These include two terms worth of comprehensive teaching and learning materials, complete with online student book pages, videos, animations, worksheets, assessments and differentiated lesson plans for 60 lessons *. 5

6 21. I want to start preparing my students for the new GCSEs before the draft specifications are available this July. Is there anything I can start to look at now? Yes. We ve developed a suite of subject-specific transition materials, which are designed to support the move from Key Stage 3 to the new GCSEs by focusing on consolidating knowledge and developing skills. These materials consist of mapping documents showing the changes to the Edexcel specifications, suggested transition content and activities, and short end-of-transition unit tests with mark schemes. 22. How can I find out the latest information on the specifications and support available? As part of our support promise, we want to make sure you can keep up to date with the latest news on our new GCSE (9 1) qualifications. All the details on our new courses are available on our website, and you can be the first to hear of any developments simply sign up to receive updates from us. 23. Where can I find out more details about published resources for the new GCSE (9 1) qualifications in science? We aim for our qualifications to be supported by high-quality resources produced by a range of publishers, including Pearson, and we re working with publishers who are looking towards getting their resources endorsed. Pearson s brand-new resources are based on simple, inclusive and inspiring approaches that will support you to deliver great science teaching for GCSE (9-1) courses, creating confident, successful learners able to access the higher skills demanded by the new assessments and retain knowledge. Endorsed resources from other publishers will be available at: *. The impact on other Key Stage 4 qualifications 24. Will schools still be able to offer Edexcel Certificates in science? The Department for Education announced that it won t be possible for Awarding Bodies to redevelop the current Level 1/Level 2 Certificates for recognition in performance tables from 2018 onwards. Following this announcement, Edexcel Certificates in science (the International GCSE equivalent taken by maintained sector schools in the UK) will no longer be offered to schools after the June 2017 examination series. You can read more about this announcement on our website. 25. What about International GCSEs in science? International GCSEs in science are not affected by the aforementioned decision from the Department for Education and will continue to be offered to independent schools in the UK. Currently, International GCSEs do not feature in official government performance measures, and this will continue to be the case. 6

7 26. What about Entry Level qualifications? Entry Level qualifications will continue to be available; please note that as this qualification is below Level 1, it will not count in performance measures. Got a question that s not on the FAQs yet? Just ask our expert science team, by ing TeachingScience@pearson.com. Make sure you get the latest news! Sign up to receive our GCSE Sciences s! Please note the information provided is based on our draft specifications and sample assessment materials which are subject to accreditation by Ofqual. * It is not necessary to buy resources to deliver our specifications. ** The Preparing Students for Success: Developing scientific communicators at Key Stages 3 and 4 course is a paid-for event. You don t need to attend the event to deliver our qualifications Endorsed resources from publishers will be available at U343 7