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Developments

Revised GCSE criteria

Following a review of GCSEs in 2007, QCA developed draft qualification and subject criteria in collaboration with teachers, awarding bodies, subject associations, higher education organisations and other interested parties.

The aims of revising the criteria were to:

  • update the content of the GCSEs
  • encourage innovative teaching, learning and assessment
  • incorporate key elements of 14–19 curriculum developments
  • ensure that the revised GCSEs complement the new Diplomas
  • revise the assessment arrangements to provide stretch and challenge for all learners and make assessment less formulaic and predictable
  • maintain standards.

Controlled assessments

In October 2006 QCA made the following announcements about controlled assessment.

  • Controlled assessments will replace coursework in the following subjects: business studies, classical subjects, economics, English literature, geography, history, modern foreign languages, and social sciences.
  • Controlled assessments will be taken under supervised conditions and will either be set by the awarding body and marked by teachers or be set by teachers and marked by the awarding body.
  • Controlled assessments may involve different parameters from those used in traditional written examinations. They may, for example, allow access to sources such as the internet but under supervision.
  • In art and design, design and technology, home economics, music and physical education, internal assessments should continue with stronger safeguards.
  • Decisions about English and ICT should be made once the role of functional skills and their assessment arrangements are clearer.
  • Mathematics coursework will be removed from GCSE criteria.
  • Coursework for science will remain unchanged, as a revised programme of study at GCSE was introduced in September 2006.

The new controlled assessment will be introduced in September 2009, except in relation to mathematics where the change commenced in September 2007. 

We published a report, Controlled assessments, outlining the regulatory view on the new assessments that will be included in revised GCSE qualifications from September 2009. The report includes an explanation of the process of developing controlled assessment and case study examples in different GCSE subjects and should be read in conjunction with the revised GCSE criteria. The development of controlled assessment and related topics are described in more detail in the independent report, Improving GCSE: internal and controlled assessment. Both reports can be downloaded from this page.