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Onscreen GCSE English exams options from 2025*
We’re thrilled to announce that we’re working to offer every GCSE English student the choice to sit their exams onscreen from summer 2025.
Building on the success of our onscreen GCSE and International GCSE exams to date, we’re excited to be opening up more ways for all students to best show what they know and can do in GCSE English Language, GCSE English Literature and GCSE English Language 2.0.
* Subject to Ofqual approval
A level students can now study responsible AI use
For the first time, A level students can explore key questions around AI as part of a new learning pathway in our Pearson Edexcel Extended Project Qualification. With EPQ:AI, students can critically analyse and explore trending tools like Chat GPT and their outputs while gaining key skills for the future.
Exploring onscreen assessment
We’re drawing on our experience of delivering onscreen assessments in more than 115 countries to shape what’s next for GCSE, International GCSE and A level exams.
As well as already offering onscreen exams in selected subjects, we're working alongside the education community to harness technology where it can positively impact schools' and students' assessment experiences.
Why we’re thoughtfully optimistic about the place of GenAI in education
Generative AI brings into focus the importance of the most human skills, such as creativity and critical thinking.
Find out more about how we’re thinking about the impact of GenAI and AI literacy in education.
Perspectives on diversity
Personal and unfiltered, our Diversity Defined series shines a light on the perspectives of educators and experts from across the sector, exploring what diversity in education means and how it can be realised.
The series covers a range of topics including Disability, Identity, Varying Needs, Equity, Representation, Stereotypes, Inclusion, Teaching, and Youth. Each piece provides valuable insights and actionable steps to support diversity and inclusivity in education.
Practical advice from inspiring environmentalists and educators
Our Sustainability and Climate Lead, Clare Cox, puts questions to leading environmentalists and educators in our Ask the Expert series, providing you with practical advice and tips on how to make your school more sustainable and eco-friendly.
Free mental health and wellbeing support
The Wellbeing Zone is packed with free resources to support teachers, parents and young people with mental health and wellbeing – from advice on coping with anxiety and exam stress, to fun activities and mindfulness.
Latest blogs
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How to tell whether an external assessment system is right for your school
Ever since the government announced the disbanding of National Curriculum levels, schools have been asking for support on what the government and Ofsted expect to see from a school assessment system.
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Final report of the Commission on Assessment without Levels - does it move us on?
Remember Pavlov? He’s the guy who conditioned dogs to respond with a saliva reflex to the sound of bell.
At first, the dogs would be given a nice juicy piece of meat each time the bell rang, until eventually, the neural pathway was strong enough that the dogs would salivate at the idea of being fed even when the piece of meat was then withheld.
Obviously, as humans we’re a bit brighter than your average dog. But that doesn’t mean we don’t respond to conditioning – particularly when fear is involved. For many years now you’ve been expected, as teachers, to take a data-led approach to assessment. To give each child a number and to measure their progress as their evolution between these numbers.
A failure to keep track of, and to report on children’s attainment using these numbers would result in a less-than-glowing appraisal of your school’s performance from Ofsted.
So, while the DfE has long been clear that Levels are finished and that schools are free to develop their own systems of assessment and reporting, so strong is the conditioning that many schools have had difficulty believing in this freedom and letting go of the old regime.
Even those wanting to engage found themselves in a vacuum of information and direction. For pressured Heads and senior leaders with a mountain of things on their plate already, the whole area of assessment must have seemed like a ticking time-bomb that they didn’t have the manual or the time to defuse.
The Commission on Assessment without Levels was therefore set up to provide guidance to schools on creating their own assessment policies, and to help them through a time of ‘radical cultural and pedagogical change’ (to borrow from John McIntosh’s foreward to the commission’s final report).
What it does do, is provide a manifesto for high-quality, meaningful assessment that offers guidance to schools to help them develop their own policies.
However, if any schools were hoping for an off-the-peg solution to assessment or a replacement set of levels fitted to the new curriculum, the commission’s final report does not deliver.
It provides no templates, and prescribes no specific content for a school’s assessment policy. What it does do, is provide a manifesto for high-quality, meaningful assessment that offers guidance to schools to help them develop their own policies.
The detail is of course available within the report itself, but the overall message is that formative assessment is crucial; that acting upon assessment is far more important than recording it, and that schools ought not to be driven by expectations of what they think Ofsted inspectors are looking for. (The latest Common Inspection Framework plainly states that they are not looking for a particular approach).
The report also identifies what needs to happen in order for schools to feel completely comfortable and secure about their assessment policies. To be able, in short, to let go of the old way of thinking without fear of reprisal.
This includes a greater focus on assessment as part of initial teacher training, training for school leaders and Ofsted inspectors around the principles and purposes of assessment, and what best-practice looks like.
Does this mean the demise of summative assessment? Not at all. The report recognises that summative tests are a useful means of evaluation pupils’ learning and progress at the end of a period of teaching.
It’s important, however, that the data is not an end in itself, but is a way of a way of getting information that supports pupils' progress and attainment to help you tailor your teaching accordingly.
It follows therefore, that when you’re creating, or looking for ready-made summative assessment resources, you need to think about how they help you to close that loop.
What do you do now? Well, whatever it takes to get rid of that old conditioning. Grasp this opportunity for what it is – a government sanctioned move towards a more innovative, child-focused, sensible approach to assessment.
Read the report, if you haven’t already, and get excited. And most of all, believe. Believe that you know what good assessment looks like, and believe that the DfE trusts you to make it happen.
News
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Pearson to develop frameworks for OECD's PISA student assessment for 2015
Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, has been chosen to develop the frameworks for the OECD’s landmark PISA educational assessment in 2015.
The PISA assessment is widely recognised as the benchmark for measuring the improvement of education systems worldwide. 74 countries/economies participated in the 2009 test.
In 2015, PISA’s main focus will be testing the scientific literacy of students around the world. The test will feature significant new elements:
- A new Collaborative Problem Solving assessment will be added, in recognition of the ways young people will have to learn and work throughout their lives. Pearson will develop this new domain for PISA
- Greater use of computer-based testing
Pearson will also provide advice to the PISA study on the benefits, opportunities and implications of implementing computer adaptive testing for PISA in future.
Pearson International chief executive John Fallon said:
“High quality education is vital to a nation's economic development and social well-being - and PISA is a key benchmark by which nations can measure their own progress and learn from each other. So we are thrilled to have the chance to work with the OECD and academic communities around the world to develop the 2015 test.
“We are committed to developing a global benchmark that, through assessing a wider range of skills and making better use of technology, will be even more relevant to helping countries prosper in an increasingly global and knowledge-based economy."
Head of the PISA programme at the OECD Andreas Schleicher said:
“PISA 2015 has the potential to be the start of a new phase of our international assessments. We need to make much smarter use of technology in how we test young people, and we need to assess problem-solving abilities as governments around the world seek to equip young people with the skills they need for life and employment.
“Pearson have put forward an ambitious strategy to support the OECD and member governments in creating a global benchmark for education.”
Notes on this story
- The OECD’s PISA test (www.pisa.oecd.org) is widely recognised as the benchmark for measuring the improvement of education systems worldwide. 74 countries/economies participated in the 2009 test representing around 87% of the world’s economy. Representative samples of students are selected at age 15 in each country in order to provide consistency across borders and regions.
The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (www.oecd.org) exists to promote policies that improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. - Pearson (www.pearson.com) is the world’s leading learning company, providing educational materials, technologies, assessments and related services to teachers and students of all ages. From pre-school to higher education and professional education, our curriculum materials, digital learning tools and testing programmes help to educate more than 100 million people worldwide.
Together with the OECD, Pearson has formed international panels of experts in science, collaborative problem solving, mathematics and reading to define the competencies, understanding and reasoning that students should be tested on in 2015, involving academics from thirteen different countries representing a spread across five continents.
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Educational partnership set to widen access to degrees
Pearson has announced a new educational partnership with Royal Holloway, which will see the college validating their new business degree.
The new degrees will combine the highest levels of academic rigour alongside practical learning relevant to the workplace. Students will start to enrol students on these Pearson degree programmes from September 2012.
Pearson is the world’s biggest learning company, working in more than 70 countries and with over 100 years of experience. Royal Holloway is in the top 1% of universities in the world and has an excellent record in graduate employment. This makes it the perfect partner to help develop flexible Pearson degrees that balance academic achievement and the needs of employers.
Rod Bristow, President of Pearson UK, said:
“We’re delighted that Royal Holloway has come on board as our validating university partner for this exciting project. Pearson has a long heritage of working in higher education around the world and we’re really looking forward to bringing this expertise to UK degrees”.
Roxanne Stockwell, Managing Director of Higher Education Awards at Pearson will be leading the Pearson degree development team. She said:
“Working with Royal Holloway will allow us to produce a degree that is not only academically stretching, but also gives students the skills that are genuinely valuable to employers. There is a real demand for flexible academic degrees which facilitate progression to the workplace. Thanks to this partnership, students will have more choice in the higher education marketplace, and will be able to choose a degree that suits their needs and helps them make progress in their lives.”
As the validating university Royal Holloway will ensure the high academic quality of the degrees, while Pearson will undertake its design, development and delivery through a network of suitable locations such as such as Corporations and Further Education colleges.
Professor Rob Kemp, Deputy Principal of Royal Holloway, said:
“Our founders, in opening colleges for women in the 19th Century, were the first to address the challenge of widening access and we are delighted to continue this tradition today by supporting Pearson in this initiative.”
The first degree to be offered will be Business, with further degree programmes being developed by Pearson in the future.
About Royal Holloway
Royal Holloway, University of London is one of the UK’s leading teaching and research university institutions, ranked in the top 20 for research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. One of the larger colleges of the University of London, Royal Holloway has a strong profile across the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. Its 8,000 students work with internationally-renowned scholars in 18 academic departments. Over 20% of students are postgraduates and 22% come from 130 different countries. Renowned for its iconic Founder’s Building, Royal Holloway is situated on an extensive parkland campus in Egham, Surrey, only 40 minutes from central London.
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First ever national awards to recognise excellence in BTEC qualifications
The first National BTEC Awards are all about celebrating the outstanding achievements of students, teachers, schools and colleges in vocational learning.
The Awards will be hosted by Radio One DJ Scott Mills, at the Royal Society of Arts in London and will be attended by nominated students, teachers, and leaders in education. John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning will be opening the ceremony.
Today’s Awards ceremony is being held in recognition of the nearly a million students around the country who are studying BTEC qualifications this year. Pearson UK, who own Edexcel, the awarding body for BTECs, announced that it was inviting nominations for the National BTEC Awards in April 2011. In total, over 450 nominations were received, across the award categories.
The ceremony will see the winners of the following four top prizes, as well as eight sector-specific winners, formally announced:
- Outstanding BTEC Student of the Year: Grant Ridley, National Enterprise Academy
- Outstanding BTEC Teacher/Tutor of the Year: Euthan Newman, South Thames College
- Outstanding BTEC School/College of the Year: Newlands Girls’ School
- Outstanding BTEC Adult Learner: Keith Southern, Mid Cheshire College
A full list of categories and winners is included in the notes below.
The judging panel for the Awards, who will all be present at the ceremony, included:
- Gerard Kelly, Editor of the Times Education Supplement
- Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow
- Despina Panayi, a former Teaching Awards winner
- Nick Chambers, Direct of Education Employers Taskforce
Rod Bristow, President, Pearson UK said:
“I am delighted to be hosting the first ever National BTEC Awards today. The quality and number of nominations was incredibly heartening and truly emphasised that it’s high time that vocational excellence is celebrated just as much as we celebrate academic achievement.
Every year, thousands of BTEC students go on to great universities and fantastic jobs. They achieve great things in a wide variety of careers; from business and engineering to ICT and healthcare. It is just as important to support and officially celebrate the hard work and achievements of outstanding BTEC students and their teachers.”
Awards host, Radio One DJ Scott Mills said, “I am very excited to be part of the first ever National BTEC Awards. It is important to recognise the different routes through which young people can achieve their ambitions and today’s ceremony will remind people that vocational education is just as valued and valuable as traditional academic routes.”
About the Awards
The full list of winners of the National BTEC Awards will be formally announced at the ceremony on 7 July 2012, but please contact Depali or Alexa for more information if you wish to speak to specific winners.
The full list of categories is as follows:
- Outstanding BTEC student of the year
- Outstanding BTEC tutor of the year
- Outstanding BTEC centre of the year
- Outstanding contribution to the community by a BTEC student
- Outstanding BTEC student in ICT
- Outstanding BTEC student in Business and Enterprise
- Outstanding BTEC student in Public services
- Outstanding BTEC student in Construction and Engineering
- Outstanding BTEC student in Creative and Media
- Outstanding BTEC student in Healthcare and Science
- Outstanding BTEC student in Hospitality and Beauty
- Outstanding BTEC student on a short course
Policy Watch
About Policy Watch
Policy Watch is a regular policy briefing and updating service that keeps everyone up to date with the latest developments in the world of education. It is presented in a simple, accessible format through weekly updates, monthly summaries and associated papers and presentations.
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