GCSE Single Award Science Support Events March/ April 2018

Agenda Welcome Brief overview of new Specification for new teachers Practical Requirements update JCQ- Student Guidance Grading Support- Ongoing Q&A

GCSE SAS Unique features Employability New specification Provides broad balanced base of Scientific knowledge and skills Strong emphasis on practical skills Can be studied in a unitised or linear way Practical skills components are now marked by us freeing you to teach Helps to build up research, problem solving, organisation and analytical skills Allows students to develop transferable skills that will benefit them in training and Potential pathway into a broad range of careers due to transferable skills

Specification at a glance Content Assessment Divided into four units Unit 1: Biology Unit 2: Chemistry Unit 3: Physics Unit 4: Practical Skills 9 prescribed Practicals over the two years of the course Units 1,2 and 3 are each assessed by a written examination Unit 4 is an externally assessed Practical Skills unit in two parts: Booklet A and Booklet B. Any full unit may be entered at Foundation Tier (C* - G) or Higher Tier (A*- D/E)

Unit 4 Practical Skills Booklet A Booklet A contains two practicals from the prescribed practical list. We send a Materials and Apparatus list in November(2018). We send a copy of Booklet A for each student to schools for January. All students must carry these out before the June submission date. These are marked externally by CCEA. PSA guidance booklet on each microsite

Practical Skills Booklet A Students carry out two externally marked pre-release practicals in the final year of study. 2 hours for Foundation and Higher Tier Weighting 7.5% Available for completion from January to June each year beginning in 2019

Unit 4 Practical Skills Booklet B Booklet B is a timetabled, externally assessed exam taken at the end of final year of study. It consists of questions about planning and carrying out any of the prescribed practicals as well as more general questions about any practical situation that arises from the specification.

Practical Skills Booklet B External written examination Students answer compulsory structured questions that include short responses, extended writing and calculations, all set in a practical context There are two tiers of entry; Foundation and Higher (1 hour for F Tier and 1hour 15 mins H tier)

Practical Skills Booklet B (continued) Weighting 17.5% Available every summer beginning 2019

Conducting the Practical 6.3 Specification Booklet A is a practical skills assessment and must be carried out under a high level of control. Both practical components must be completed within the same session on the same day. An appropriate teacher should be present with an invigilator to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations. Teachers and invigilators should not offer direction or guidance to candidates where this would assist them in completing Booklet A. Foundation and Higher Tier candidates can carry out the practical skills assessment in the same room, but they can only work with others taking the same tier. Candidates may work collaboratively in groups of up to three when carrying out the practical tasks. However, all candidates must work individually and independently to complete Booklet A. Candidates have 2 hours to complete this assessment. The examinations officer must keep all Booklet A papers (completed and unused) securely at all times. Centres must return Booklet A papers to us for marking after 1 May.( Now June return Date) We will provide additional information relating to Booklet A as a support document (PSA Guidance doc)

For Booklet A, the level of control for task taking is high For Booklet A, the level of control for task taking is high. The table below exemplifies high levels of control for this practical skills assessment. Areas of Control Details of Control Authenticity Booklet A is an externally set and externally marked practical skills assessment. Teachers must ensure that all candidates are in direct sight of the supervisor at all times. Interaction between candidates is tightly prescribed during the practical tasks. They should not communicate with each other when completing their response in Booklet A. We will publish a timetabled period for this practical skills assessment on the examinations timetable. Candidates must carry out the practical tasks and complete Booklet A in 2 hours. We send an apparatus and materials list to examinations officers in December of the last year of study. They should distribute this list to the relevant head of department. Feedback Teachers should not provide guidance or feedback during the practical skills assessment except to intervene on the grounds of health and safety. Page limit We set Booklet A. It has no prescribed page limit. Collaboration Candidates for the same tier of entry may work collaboratively to carry out the practical tasks, but they must provide an individual response in Booklet A. Resources The only allowed additional resource is the GCSE Data Leaflet that appears in Appendix 2, if required.

Conducting on the day Teacher Organisation Assign groups or individuals to an area for the PSA- could do before you start or previous lesson You may put timeframes on board, group orders of experiment completion. ( just before the exam starts) During the Practical Control is High- students should only communicate if required about results gathering if working in a group 1st Experiment unlikely students should need more than half an hour to collect results. No student should be talking when their group has finished collecting results. 2nd Hour Experiment 2nd should ideally have begun.

JCQ Social Media Ensure Students are aware of the new guidance https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/information-for-candidates-documents/information-for-candidates---social-media-2017-2018 Ensure Students are aware of the new guidance

Grading of New GCSEs All unitised GCSE qualifications use uniform marks (ums) This ensures fairness year on year irrespective of the demand of the paper/mark scheme The total number of uniform marks for a unitised GCSE is generally 400um

Total number of uniform marks available for unit The % weighting of a unit determines the uniform marks available for that unit GCSE – 400um in total Unit % weighting of unit Total number of uniform marks available for unit 1 35% 140um 2 40% 160um 3 25% 100um New Examinations Officers’ Roadshow 2017

Revised GCSEs – New Grades

Setting Grade Boundaries for revised GCSEs For each unit, grade boundaries are initially set in raw marks C/D, A/B and F/G are “judgemental” grade boundaries and are set first The rest of the raw mark grade boundaries are calculated Notional A* grade will not be awarded at unit level for revised GCSEs The raw marks are then “mapped” onto uniform marks – No scaling is involved New Examinations Officers’ Roadshow 2017

Example non-tiered revised GCSE unit with 30% weighting Total Raw mark = 100 Total uniform mark = 120 Grade Raw mark Boundary Uniform Mark Boundary A 71 96 (80% of available um) B 63 88 (73% of available um) C* 56 81 (67% of available um) C 49 72 (60% of available um) D 43 60 (50% of available um) E 38 48 (40% of available um) F 33 36 (30% of available um) G 28 24 (20% of available um) 8um ÷ 8 raw = 1 1 raw = 1 um 12um ÷ 6 raw = 2 1 raw = 2 um New Examinations Officers’ Roadshow 2017

Awarding overall Subject Grades Uniform marks from each unit are added up and overall grade awarded Subject Grade Uniform Mark Grade Boundary (400um GCSE Subject) A* Varies year on year A 320 (80% of total um) B 292 (73% of total um) C* 268 (67% of total um) C 240 (60% of total um) D 200 (50%of total um) E 160 (40% of total um) F 120 (30% of total um) G 80 (20%of total um) Eg: Unit 1 = 78um Unit 2 = 65 um Unit 3 = 101um TOTAL = 244um Subject grade = C

Setting A* in revised GCSEs A* grades are only awarded at subject level after all uniform marks have been aggregated (added up). First A* grades will be awarded in summer 2019 % of candidates who will be awarded an A* is determined as follows: Example: if 30% of candidates achieve a grade A or above then 22% of those will achieve an A * which equals 6.6% of all candidates Percentage of those achieving at least grade A who will be awarded an A* = 7% + 0.5*(percentage of candidates awarded grade A or above)   New Examinations Officers’ Roadshow 2017

Revised GCSEs and Tiering Higher Tier papers award notional grades A to D (plus an allowable E) at unit level Foundation Tier papers will award notional grades C* to G at unit level In unitised tiered GCSEs candidates do not have to take all units at either higher or foundation eg. unit 1 could be taken at foundation and unit 2 could be taken at higher If a unit is taken at foundation tier then the uniform marks are capped 1 mark below the grade B uniform mark boundary Overall grade is obtained by adding up all uniform marks for each unit New Examinations Officers’ Roadshow 2017

Total uniform marks for unit = 160 (40% weighting at GCSE) Higher Tier grade HT um grade boundary Foundation Tier grade FT um grade boundary A 128 B 117 Highest um achievable in foundation = 116 C* 108 C 96 D 80 Allowable E (45%) of available um 72 E 64 U Less than 72 F 48 G 32 New Examinations Officers’ Roadshow 2017

CCEA Support Single Award Science microsite at www.ccea.org.uk and specimen assessment materials; past papers; mark schemes; Chief Examiner’s reports from Summer 2018; guidance on progression from Key Stage 3; planning frameworks;

Past Papers Past papers will be available on the CCEA microsite. After an exam has been taken the management of all papers transfers from QPP and the Education Manager to the CCEA Copyright team. Papers can only be published when the CCEA Copyright team has received permissions for all images. CCEA cannot redraw copyright images as this is to do this is a breach of copyright( adaptation)

Support from other Providers ASE- Teachmeets and Science Conferences https://www.ase.org.uk/ase-regions/regional-events/ Institute of Physics Student Awards/ Schools support/ Affiliated Schools http://www.iopireland.org/education/index.html Scientix – EU Resource Repository/ MOOCs http://www.scientix.eu/

Q&A

Contacts: GCSE Single Award Science Education Manager: Gavin Gray Telephone: 028 90 261200 Ext 2270 Email: ggray@ccea.org.uk Subject Support Officer: Nuala Tierney Telephone: 028 90 261200 Ext 2292 Email: ntierney@ccea.org.uk

Working with CCEA The benefits: teacher cover provided first-hand experience of how the examining system works user insight to the standards required for the assessment opportunity to examine assessments across a range of abilities improved learning and teaching outcomes creates links with CCEA personnel/subject officer opportunity to network with other professionals provides recognition and enhances the professional development of teachers Examiners and moderators are vital to the success of the examining system Teachers provide expert knowledge of the specification content Understanding of the capabilities of the candidature at a specific level

Thank You for attending