Quick links

• Assessment Reform: DfE consultation
• myNetwork: Upcoming webinars and community news
• myResources: Key resources for this term
• myTraining: New training for the term ahead
• mySupport: Help and guidance

Help shape the future of digital assessment

We’d like to hear about your experiences of digital teaching, learning and assessment through a short survey.

By sharing your experiences, you’ll help us shape the guidance, resources and support teachers need as digital assessment continues to evolve.

The survey contains 24 questions, takes around 12 minutes to complete and closes on 1 November 2026. As a thank you, participants who complete the survey can enter a prize draw for the chance to win one of four £50 gift vouchers.

Curriculum Connects

We have some exciting Curriculum Connects coming up, including:

Exploring Summer 2026

Join the AQA Creative Arts team for an overview of AQA results from the summer 2026 exam series. Explore national trends in your subject, including grade boundaries and outcomes. You’ll also gain valuable insights from examiner reports, highlighting key strengths and areas for development. We’ll also share a round-up of resources and upcoming events to support your teaching. Please note that student responses and commentaries will not be covered in this session; these will be explored in more detail in our national programme events.

NEA Planning

Join us for a session designed to support your planning and delivery of the NEA. We’ll provide an overview of the NEA brief and mark scheme, clarifying what is and isn’t permitted throughout the process. The session will also include key dos and don’ts, top tips for success and an opportunity to ask questions directly to our Subject Support team during a live Q&A.

Drama

Live Q&A and networking: Come along, ask your questions and connect with others. This will be held early in the spring term.

Autumn Curriculum Connects are available to  book now - come and meet your Creative Arts Subject Support team and network with other teachers.

Community Links updates

Music and Drama Education Expo 2027 
Dates for your diary: 11 and 12 February 2027 at The Business Design Centre, London. We look forward to seeing you there.

Here we’ve rounded up a few useful and practical resources from some other organisations in the Drama community to support you in the classroom.

Vamos Theatre

This autumn, Vamos Theatre are delivering three CPD workshops for teachers exploring Devising, Mask and Non-Verbal Theatre. The practical sessions, in London, Liverpool and Nottingham, provide techniques and classroom-ready activities to support teaching of mask performance, physical theatre and devising.

Vamos Theatre will tour its award-winning full-mask production Finding Joy in February-March 2027. Schools and colleges can also book a two-hour mask and devising workshop for KS3 students, with BSL delivery available. Tour dates and venues will be announced in September 2026.

The National Theatre

The National Theatre are delighted to share an extensive database of teaching resources. These are free for schools and available on the National Theatre Learning Hub and the National Theatre Collection. Resources range from schemes of work to downloadable PDF lesson plans, insights from casts and creatives and full recordings of plays.

You can find all their resources here for GCSE Drama, A-level Drama and Theatre and A-Level Shakespeare: Resources for set texts.

The British Library

Explore their free digital learning resources:

• Discovering Literature: new resources

They also have these great resources:

• Discover 100 of the British Library's best-loved articles, teaching resources and CPD, perfect for teachers of years 10–13.
• GCSE Drama: Delve into hubs of resources on The Empress  and  Romeo and Juliet and watch free recorded CPD sessions on these plays and more.
• A-level Drama: Explore expert articles on Much Ado About Nothing  and Shakespeare in context.
• Theatre practitioners: Enrich your teaching of Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht and Punchdrunk.

Black theatre makers in the early 20th century

Explore these new, free resources from the British Library to discover the works of Black playwrights, directors, actors and theatre companies from the 1900s-1940s. Featuring At What a Price, the first play by pioneering writer, broadcaster and activist Una Marson, and Garland Anderson's Appearances, the first full-length drama by an African American author to appear on Broadway.

Explore more

Bloomsbury

Searching for more diverse plays to introduce to your secondary students next year? Take a look at Bloomsbury Publishing’s (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play Lists.

The Lists now recommend 176 plays written by writers of colour exploring a diverse and exciting range of themes, topics, styles, forms and locations to engage students and ignite them to the power of theatre and drama. Each play is accompanied by a short synopsis as well as content warnings, themes and additional teacher resources to allow you to easily embed the play into your own curricula.

Download the Plays Lists at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/connect/lit-in-colour/

PuppetBox 

We were delighted to win a High Commendation award for Outstanding Drama Education Resource at the Music and Drama Education Awards this year.

PuppetBox make puppets at an affordable price. Alongside this they run workshops and training opportunities. Contact PuppetBox if you would like them to come to your school or venue to deliver a workshop, support you in planning schemes of work or help you use puppetry in your curriculum.

They’re hosting their annual CPD training day in Brighton on 18 March 2027. A full day of hands-on puppetry training for teachers, theatre-makers and creative facilitators. Visit the Puppetbox website and look for the early bird discount.

Nick Hern Books

New videos available of Princess & The Hustler by Chinonyerem Odimba

Nick Hern Books is pleased to share extracts from the play which were filmed for educational use during a student production at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), London, October 2025.

Key updates

GCSE and A-level specification reminders

Component 2

Final Recorded Assessment: all students must perform, record and submit a single final assessment, which is the only version that will be accepted and evaluated. Multiple recordings and/or re-recordings are not permitted and previous drafts or alternative versions must not be submitted. Design students are not required to perform; however, they are still required to record and submit a single final assessment.

Component 3

Where an assessment can’t take place as a visit due to extenuating circumstances, the same final recorded assessment requirements outlined above will apply.

Full details are provided in Requirements for recording and submitting performance evidence for GCSE and A-level, These requirements must be met for all students.

A-level Drama and Theatre specification update

We’re pleased to confirm that we’ve added two practitioners to the subject content (section 3.5) of the (7262) specification. Read the full update on our website.

Component 3: Have you had your play choices approved? 

Remember, GCSE and A-level play choices must be approved by AQA before performance. What you need to do:

• submit a play approval form to your allocated AQA NEA adviser
• forms for 2027 can be found in the Exams Administration area of our website
• forms must be completed on screen and emailed no later than six weeks before the visiting exam date.

NEA advisers can support you with selecting and using suitable extracts. Guidance on how to find your NEA adviser contact details is available in mySupport.

Clarification on the use of a non-examinee

A non-examinee must be a current student, not a member of staff. They can be:

• a student from the same cohort taking part in a different performance, or another student in the school or college
• make sure you clearly identify which students are being assessed in the performance so your moderator/examiner can follow.

Component 2: Managing student absences in final performances

If a student misses the final assessed performance due to illness, injury, or other authorised reason, you have two options:

1. delay the assessment for the affected group
2. go ahead without the absent student, either by reworking the performance to run without them or using a non-examinee to perform their role.

Remember:

• if a non-examinee performs, you can submit a special consideration request for the rest of the group
• if the piece can be reworked to run without the absent student, special consideration is not allowed. Check with your exams officer
• when the absent student returns, the group can perform again. Only the returning student is assessed; the others are non-examinees
• always include a covering note with full details when submitting digital materials.

Component 3: Handling absences during examiner visit performances

If a student is absent due to illness, injury, or another authorised reason, you have two options:

1. go ahead on the scheduled day with a non-examinee taking the absent student’s role
2. delay the performance until the absent student can participate.

Remember:

• if a non-examinee performs, you can submit a special consideration request for the rest of the group if justified
• when the absent student returns, they perform with the rest of the group acting as non-examinees.

Record the performance and send it on a USB  to your examiner as soon as possible, on a date agreed with them.

Teacher online standardisation (T-OLS) GCSE and A-level (Component 2 only)

Are you looking to improve the accuracy of your non-exam assessment (NEA) marking this year? Why not use our free Teacher online standardisation tool during a departmental meeting to check your marking is in line with our lead moderator? The  GCSE and A-level indexes are also available on our website .

Student Advisory Group recruitment for 2026/27

Help your learners influence the future of exams

We’re looking for learners to join our Student Advisory Group for 2026/27.  The group gives young people a direct opportunity to share their experiences and views on qualifications, assessments and the wider exam system. Their insights will help shape the future of the curriculum, qualifications and assessments for young people, as well as our work to offer new vocational qualifications.

If you know any learners who may be interested, please encourage them to apply – we’re looking for students who have taken AQA qualifications, though this is not essential, and they can be sitting general or vocational qualifications.

Applications open: Monday 7 September 2026

Applications close: 5.00pm on Monday 21 September 2026

Thank you for helping us raise awareness of this opportunity among your learners. For more information about the Student Advisory Group and details on how to apply, please visit our website.