• Schools cry foul over missing BTEC results

    Schools and colleges across England are still awaiting the results of some vocational qualifications, despite a promise from government that all grades would be issued by today. Some pupils have been told they may have to wait until next week to receive grades for BTECs and other vocational qualifications. The Department for Education and Pearson,…

    14.15 Aug. 28th, 2020 | News

  • Pearson considering using markers to be part of national tutoring programme

    An exam board is scoping out whether to redeploy its markers as tutors so it can get involved in the government’s £1 billion catch-up plans. Pearson has contacted examiners they identified with “appropriate skills and experience” to “explore” whether the board could be part of the programme. Of the £1bn catch-up funding announced by the…

    11.42 Jul. 7th, 2020 | News

  • Another exam board offers payments instead of furlough

    Another exam board has offered pay-offs instead of furlough for some examiners, while committing to returning savings from unspent exam fees back to schools. In an email to examiners, Pearson said it was not using the government’s furlough scheme because it “believes it has been put in place to protect primarily small and medium-sized business”.…

    5.00 May. 17th, 2020 | News

  • Exam board furloughs some examiners and offers £250 goodwill payment to others

    An exam board is furloughing some of its examiners, but offering others a £250 one-off “goodwill” payment instead. Cambridge Assessment, which owns exam boards OCR and Cambridge International, is the first organisation to tell examiners of its pay arrangements in light of exam cancellations this summer. Whether the boards can use government help to pay…

    15.00 May. 1st, 2020 | News

  • Pearson apologises after BTEC gaffe hits schools' progress 8 scores

    Ministers have vowed to amend schools’ progress 8 scores after it was discovered some were as much as 0.2 points lower than expected because Pearson sent incomplete BTEC results to the government. The exam board has apologised after some schools checked Department for Education data on Thursday and were shocked to see that their progress…

    16.45 Sep. 26th, 2019 | News

  • Complaints against leading exam boards double in two years

    The number of complaints received by Ofqual about England’s largest exam boards has nearly doubled over the past two years, latest figures show. Statistics released by the exams regulator today reveal that there were 143 complaints made against AQA, Pearson and OCR in 2018-19. This is a rise of 54 per cent from the 93…

    17.15 Sep. 3rd, 2019 | News

  • 'Attenborough effect' is 'fuelling' interest in GCSE science

    The “Attenborough effect” – where pupils want to “make a difference” in the world – is fuelling an interest in science, the vice president of Pearson has said. In England, 767,722 16-year-olds took science double award this year – a rise of 5.1 per cent (37,132) from the 730,590 pupils who entered the exam last…

    17.52 Aug. 22nd, 2019 | News

  • Pearson will issue 'revised grades' for some BTEC pupils who missed re-sit chance

    Pearson has pledged to issue “revised grades” for some pupils who may have been disadvantaged by missing out on the opportunity to re-sit exams after its last-minute decision to hike grade boundaries. Writing exclusively for Schools Week, Cindy Rampersaud, Pearson senior vice president, and Derek Richardson, Pearson vice president, said they “apologise unreservedly” for how…

    13.18 Aug. 20th, 2019 | News

  • Pearson: We apologise for not being clear on BTEC changes - but it’s the right call

    This week, tens of thousands of students receive their results for their Level 2 vocational qualifications and GCSEs. Our BTEC Tech Awards are designed to be taught alongside GCSEs, giving students a glimpse into a professional sector whilst teaching them skills for life. Students will receive grades for the first time in five new BTEC…

    13.01 Aug. 20th, 2019 | Opinion

  • Investigation launched after pupils given question 'copied' from textbook

    An investigation has been launched after it emerged a question used in the Edexcel GCSE maths paper 3 this week was almost identical to one used in a revision textbook. Pupils took to social media to share their frustration after they were faced with the same diagram, values and answer in Tuesday’s GCSE higher tier…

    15.06 Jun. 13th, 2019 | News

  • Edexcel allows exam candidates to opt out of gender classifications

    Pupils taking exams this summer have been offered the chance to opt out of gender classifications for the first time. Pearson, the education company that owns the exam board Edexcel, made the step forward, by presenting candidates with the option of removing the male or female classification for their qualifications. The idea of a gender-neutral…

    17.19 Aug. 15th, 2018 | News