Changes to 2021 exams for GCSE Citizenship
Published: Friday 18 Sep 2020
We’ve been working hard to make the relevant changes to our qualifications following Ofqual’s decisions on summer 2021 exams, so here are the changes you need to know about for GCSE Citizenship (8100).
These changes only apply to the 2021 exam series.
Citizenship Action Investigation
To help you proceed confidently with the Citizenship Action Investigation, we’ve created the following guidance to help students approach the Investigation in the current social distancing context.
Ensuring safety and security of teachers and students
The safety and security of teachers and students is paramount. Section 3.1 of the specification sets out the skills, processes and methods that students must demonstrate. These should be developed in a safe environment and at all times.
We expect most of the work for a Citizenship Action Investigation to take place in the classroom as we consider this to be the safest environment. Students may also undertake this work at home.
Ensuring safety and security online
Stage 2 of the Investigation requires students to research their issue using both primary and secondary sources. Ofqual’s GCSE Subject Level Conditions and Requirements for Citizenship Studies document defines these types of sources as:
Primary sources are the data and findings generated by the student when undertaking research and enquiries into citizenship issues and as part of the process of taking citizenship action. This can include data and findings from student observations, discussions with members of the community, qualitative and quantitative interview data, recordings, results of polls, votes and surveys relevant to their study.
Secondary sources are the data and findings, generated in the past or by another party, that are used by the student when undertaking research and enquiries into citizenship issues and as part of the process of taking citizenship action. These can include published sources of data, findings and official reports from public bodies and institutions such as Parliament, government departments, local councils and authorities, reports in the news and the media, NGOS, groups, research and other organisations, opinion polls, statistics, videos and other sources, relevant to their study.
With the ongoing public health restrictions, face-to-face interactions should be avoided when completing the research phase of the Citizenship Action Investigation. We’d recommend that students use online secondary sources of information as far as possible. Whilst some forms of primary research will no longer be possible, there are still some forms of primary research that students can safely undertake online, for example surveys.
It’s important that students remain safe in online environments when carrying out the Investigation, and they may need additional support and guidance in order to do this.
Working safely and securely with the specification
In order to maintain the safety and security of students, the requirement to take Citizenship Action in a ‘real out-of-classroom context’ must now be followed with reference to the above guidance.
- The practising of skills must take place in the safe environments identified.
- Where students are able to work safely in small groups in classrooms they can still do so, whilst relying on their teacher’s professional judgement to support them.
- Any other non-classroom based (group) activity should be dependent upon, and carried out in accordance with, your school/college policy.
Stages in the Citizenship Action Investigation
- With the exception of Stage 4, all other stages can be carried out in the safe environments identified.
- For Stage 4, we don’t advise that students undertake volunteering.
- Students should not ‘establish a group to promote change’ unless it’s with people with whom they can safely interact.
- Teachers should support their students to make these decisions, and where it is safe to do so.
There are no other planned changes to our GCSE Citizenship Studies specification or to the exams. For Paper 1, we anticipate that students may write about the ways in which they have adapted or evaluated their Citizenship Action as a result of the current pandemic. All answers will be credited if they meet the relevant criteria in the mark scheme.
We'll be publishing further guidance about the summer 2021 exams over the coming months. In the meantime, if you have any further questions, please contact our customer services team citizenship@aqa.org.uk or call 01483 477791.
