(Title Image: Qualifications Wales)
The qualifications watchdog – Qualifications Wales – has published their draft report on how GCSEs will work after the introduction of the new national curriculum (pdf).
The new national curriculum proposes six general areas of learning, with some cross-curricular elements such as the use of IT, literacy and numeracy. Despite this, most individual GCSE subjects are set to remain stand-alone qualifications.
In summary, Qualifications Wales proposes:
- Reviewing and reforming GCSEs in Art & Design, Music & Drama and introducing a new GCSE in Film & Digital Media. There are no plans to introduce a GCSE in Dance, though alternative qualifications that assess dance should be available to students.
- No specific qualification will be offered to cover the health and well-being area of learning, though existing GCSEs in Food & Nutrition, PE and Health & Social Care will be reviewed.
- Stand-alone GCSEs in Business Studies, Geography, History and Religious Studies will be reviewed and retained. A new GCSE in Social Studies (which could cover citizenship, sociology and law) is proposed as well as, if possible, an integrated double-award GCSE in Humanities.
- GCSEs in English and Welsh (First) Language & Literature will be integrated as single qualifications in each case. GCSE Welsh Second Language would be scrapped and replaced with a qualification similar in weight to the proposed reforms for English.
- GCSEs in French, Spanish and German will be retained, reviewed and reformed. A small set of GCSEs in other international languages will be created, as well as access to a GCSE in British Sign Language being developed in England.
- GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy would be recombined into a single qualification. A smaller qualification in numeracy would be developed for those who don’t achieve a C-grade to enable them to continue in further or higher education, while GCSE Additional Mathematics should continue to be available for more able students.
- GCSEs in Computer Science, Design & Technology, Built Environment and Digital Technology would be retained and reviewed. A new GCSE in Engineering & Manufacturing would be created.
- A new GCSE Science qualification would replace the existing double-award GCSE and stand-alone GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics (aka. triple science). A series of short courses in applied science (the environment, industrial science, medicine/human biology, science in society, and land-based science) and non-core scientific disciplines (astronomy, geology, natural history) could be developed alongside them.
The new GCSE courses would start to be taught from September 2025 and the first exams would be sat in spring/summer 2027.
The consultation closes at 5 pm on 9th April 2021 – all details here.
