AQA response to Curriculum and Assessment Review interim report

AQA welcomes the publication of the interim report of the Curriculum and Assessment Review. In our submission to the review’s call for evidence, we highlighted that exams work and that GCSEs and A-levels are robust and respected routes that prepare students for further study. We also said that trimming some subject content and reducing the number of exam papers would benefit teachers and students to develop wider skills. It is positive that the Curriculum and Assessment Review's interim report echoes these points, as well as committing to review the evidence on the role technology can play in this space.

AQA CEO Colin Hughes said: “At AQA, we believe that making assessment more inclusive and accessible to all means embracing a greater role for technology, and we welcome the interim report’s commitment to reviewing the research in this area. We also recognise the call from young people and their parents for greater financial education, such as finance and budgeting, and we’re proud to be delivering a new numeracy assessment that will do just that.

“We also support the focus on an evolutionary subject by subject approach, the commitment to assessing the place of the EBacc, the importance placed on clear routes for young people into vocational and technical qualifications, and recognition of the need to reconsider the available pathways for English and maths resits – all areas we commented on in our response to the review’s call for evidence.

“We look forward to the continued work of the review and the final report due in the autumn.”