1. GCSE Single Award Science Support Events
March/ April 2018

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

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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)

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

10. 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)

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. JCQ Social Media Ensure Students are aware of the new guidance
Ensure Students are aware of the new guidance

15. 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

16. 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

17. Revised GCSEs – New Grades

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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
(80% of total um) B
(73% of total um) C*
(67% of total um) C
(60% of total um) D
(50%of total um) E
(40% of total um) F
(30% of total um) G
(20%of total um)
Eg: Unit 1 = 78um
Unit 2 = 65 um
Unit 3 = 101um
TOTAL = 244um
Subject grade = C

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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;

25. 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)

27. Support from other Providers
ASE- Teachmeets and Science Conferences
Institute of Physics
Student Awards/ Schools support/ Affiliated Schools
Scientix – EU
Resource Repository/ MOOCs

28. Q&A

29. Contacts: GCSE Single Award Science
Education Manager: Gavin Gray
Telephone: Ext 2270
Subject Support Officer: Nuala Tierney
Telephone: Ext 2292

30. 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

31. Thank You for attending