Consultation on revised GCSE subject criteria for science subjects

The Welsh Assembly Government is consulting nationally with centres, awarding bodies and a range of key stakeholders on revised criteria to govern GCSEs in science subjects.

The period of consultation will last for 12 weeks and your response should, therefore, be submitted by 11th September.

To see the subject criteria, GCSE qualification criteria, questionnaires, and to take part in the consultation, please view the documents below.

Background

Revised GCSEs in the sciences will be introduced for first teaching from September 2011, with first awards in summer 2013.

The subject criteria at GCSE provide a template against which the qualifications’ regulators consider draft specifications submitted by awarding bodies for accreditation. A GCSE qualification will only be accredited by the regulators when it is judged to have met the subject criteria and the GCSE qualification criteria.

There are subject criteria for GCSE Science, Additional Science, Additional Applied Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Biology.

There are three separate questionnaires as follows:

1. A questionnaire for those responding for GCSE Science
2. A questionnaire for those responding for GCSE Additional Science or GCSE Additional Applied Science
3. A questionnaire for those responding for GCSE Chemistry, Physics, or Biology