Changes to 2021 exams for GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition

Published: Tuesday 15 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.

GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition (8585)

For summer 2021 only:

  • NEA 1: Food Investigation has been removed from the qualification
  • NEA 2: Food Preparation tasks were released on e-AQA secure key materials (SKM) earlier on 1 September. Students can start work on these as soon as they and the school/college are ready.
  • For 2021, Section D: Making the final dishes - we require students to complete two dishes within the single three-hour time slot.
  • For Section B: Demonstrating technical skills - students will need to showcase their technical skills when making a maximum of three dishes.

NEA advisers are available if you need any help or guidance.

There are no planned changes to the GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition (8585) exam. The same specification content should be covered as always and the exam questions themselves and associated mark schemes will look the same as in earlier examples for this specification

We know that you’ll want to know more about the changes for next summer. We’ll be publishing further guidance about the summer 2021 exams over the coming months.

See all updates