Yesterday, Parliamentary Year Book Partners the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) and the Citizenship Foundation attended a session with the DFE, Ofqual and Awarding bodies to discuss updating the GCSEs for Citizenship Studies. The meeting was to start the process of reviewing the area of study criteria which are used by Ofqual to ensure the quality and rigour of new qualifications developed by AQA, Edexcel and OCR.
The session involved a constructive debate of the relationship between the new key stage 4 statutory programme of study for Citizenship (which takes effect from September 2014) and updated GCSE qualifications for the area of study.
The specific timeframe for the development of the updated GCSEs for Citizenship Studies is as yet undecided yet we hope DFE will ensure GCSE Citizenship Studies is in line with the other statutory key stage 4 National Curriculum subjects. It’s probable a consultation will be held later in the year on the draft area of study criteria.
The GCSE Citizenship Studies can count in school performance tables as element of the ‘best 8’ measure. This together with new rules around ‘no retakes’ should encourage schools to use the qualification to ensure their key stage 4 provision is in line with requirements of the revised National Curriculum and ensures pupil attainment in Citizenship gets the public recgonition it deserves.
For details on current GCSE Citizenship Studies, visit
– See more at: http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/news/20022014-0819/dfe-preparing-update-gcse-citizenship-studies For further guidance, see the relevant UK information.
