Consultation outcome

GCSE, AS and A level reform: regulations for ancient history and classical civilisation

• From: Ofqual
• Published: 19 February 2016
• Last updated: 6 May 2016 — See all updates

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Decisions on Conditions and guidance for GCSE, AS and A level Ancient History

Ref: Ofqual/16/5965

PDF, 138 KB, 2 pages

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Decisions on Conditions and guidance for GCSE, AS and A level Classical Civilisation

Ref: Ofqual/16/5966

PDF, 140 KB, 2 pages

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Detail of outcome

We have decided to confirm the majority of our consultation proposals, but have made the following changes in response to feedback:

GCSE ancient history

We have corrected an earlier oversight which meant we had not published a decision on our earlier consultation proposal to include spelling, punctuation and grammar requirements in GCSE ancient history. We are now confirming that, in line with new history GCSEs, new ancient history GCSEs will this requirement. We have updated the outcome of our earlier consultation to include this decision.

AS and A level ancient history

We have made changes to the drafting of our guidance on assessment objectives, so that they refer directly to the subject content, rather than using the potentially confusing term ‘second order historical concepts’.

GCSE classical civilisation

We have made changes to the structure of some our guidance on assessment objectives to address concerns that it did not reflect the logical breakdown of the assessment objectives.

AS and A level classical civilisation

We have made a small change to the wording of assessment objective AO1, to ensure it explicitly covers the ‘classical thought’ areas of the subject content.

We have also broadened the definition of ‘interpretations’ in our guidance on AO1 to ensure it covers all valid forms of interpretation.

Next steps

We have now published the following documents, which formally introduce our rules and guidance for new GCSEs, AS and A levels in ancient history and classical civilisation:

• GCSE Subject Level Conditions and Requirements for Ancient History
• GCSE Subject Level Guidance for Ancient History
• GCE Subject Level Conditions and Requirements for Ancient History
• GCE Subject Level Guidance for Ancient History
• GCSE Subject Level Conditions and Requirements for Classical Civilisation
• GCSE Subject Level Guidance for Classical Civilisation
• GCE Subject Level Conditions and Requirements for Classical Civilisation
• GCE Subject Level Guidance for Classical Civilisation

Feedback received

Analysis of Responses to our Consultation on Conditions and Guidance for GCSE, AS and A level Ancient History, and GCSE, AS and A level Classical Civilisation

PDF, 416 KB, 12 pages

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Detail of feedback received

We received 3 responses to our consultation - all from organisations.

One respondent did not comment directly on our proposals, but instead provided general comments on the process for reform of GCSEs, AS and A levels.

The other 2 respondents largely supported our proposals. We received only a small number of comments about:

• our proposed guidance on assessment objectives
• outside the scope of the consultation, in particular the Department for Education’s subject content, and the wording and weighting of our assessment objectives

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Original consultation

Summary

A consultation on rules and guidance for new GCSEs, AS and A levels in ancient history and classical civilisation.

This consultation ran from
1pm on 19 February 2016 to 11:45pm on 18 March 2016

Consultation description

This consultation is about the rules and guidance we plan to put in place for new GCSEs, AS and A levels in:

• ancient history
• classical civilisation

These rules will apply to the new GCSEs, AS and A levels in these subjects that will be taught in schools in England from September 2017.

This consultation takes forward decisions made following our earlier consultation ‘Developing new GCSEs, AS and A Levels for first teaching in 2017 - Part 2’, and is part of Ofqual’s work supporting the government’s changes to GCSEs, AS and A levels.

Documents

GCSE, AS and A Level Ancient History, and GCSE AS and A Level Classical Civilisation – Consultation on Conditions and guidance

Ref: Ofqual/16/5837

PDF, 680 KB, 69 pages

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Published 19 February 2016
Last updated 6 May 2016 + show all updates

1. 6 May 2016

   Published consultation feedback and outcomes

2. 19 February 2016

   First published.