GCSE Languages: September 2025 updates

Welcome to our Autumn 2025 newsletter

We hope that you have had a restful break over the summer, and a positive start to the new academic year.

We’ve had the pleasure over the last school year of getting out and about to lots of AQA schools and colleges, and to a range of events across the country, working closely with teachers and having valuable conversations about how we can best support you in the coming year.

Although we can’t quite believe how quickly it’s come around, we’re heading into first exams for the new French, German and Spanish GCSE specifications this year. The AQA Languages Subject Support team have been busy focussing on our exciting programme of CPD opportunities for the new year ahead, to help you and your students step confidently into exam season.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at various training events this term and receiving the Government’s Curriculum and Assessment review when it’s published. In this email you’ll find all the information to get you started this term.

If any members of your team would like to receive subject-specific updates, they can easily sign up for AQA subject updates, so they’re always informed and part of our community.

Wishing you a fantastic autumn term!

Chloe Burrows
Subject Support Manager for Languages

myAQA

• Sign up to myAQA to get quick access to resources, CPD training and events, Data Insights (our results analysis tool) and much more this autumn term. Make sure you’ve filled in your myAQA profile including your role and subject specialism so we can instantly start connecting you with the tools, training and resources most relevant to you.
• Once you’re logged into your myAQA account, you can also access Centre Services.

myTraining

• Our GCSE French, German and Spanish Preparing for 2026 online events focussing on Paper 2 Speaking are now available book via our Professional Development web page, with Paper 4 to follow later in the term, and Papers 1 and 3 available in the spring. In the first of these free sessions, we’ll delve deeper into the key elements of teacher conduct for the 2026 GCSE Speaking exams, as well as reviewing some sample student work. Not to be missed!
• Remember to take a look at our on-demand eLearning modules focussing on the marking criteria for the new GCSE exam papers, available on our website.

myResources

Find everything you need on myAQA:

• New tiering guide and quick-reference posters to support tiering decisions for French, German and Spanish available now on our website.
• Data Insights on Centre Services – see how your school, subject, class and individual students have performed and dig deeper into your students’ results.
• Find summer 2025 question papers, mark schemes, and examiners’ reports, all in one place on Centre Services. See what is available and when.
• You can find each of the grade boundaries on our website and the overall results statistics with cumulative pass rates for the whole AQA cohort.

Exampro

• The new ‘Complete GCSE Languages’ package from Exampro is now available for GCSE French, German and Spanish, containing new question banks and past AQA questions adapted in line with the new specifications. See the Exampro website for more information.
• Secondary Languages Onscreen for French, German and Spanish – give learners a head start with Exampro’s onscreen languages resource tailored to the new AQA GCSE specifications. Aimed at years 7-11, our searchable question banks contain hundreds of simple auto-marked questions targeting the required AQA vocabulary and grammar for the new specifications. Track learners’ progress towards mastery with automatically generated reports. Visit our Exampro website to find out more. 

myNetwork

• The Autumn 2025 Curriculum Connects for GCSE MFL are available to book now on our website – in this free online session we’ll be sharing our plans for supporting you with first GCSE exams in 2026. 

Free@3

Your Subject Support team will be running 1-1 Teams calls throughout the autumn term to support you with all things AQA Languages! If you’ve questions about our exams, specifications and resources, or just want to know more about our excellent CPD opportunities, use our booking link to secure your Free@3 slot! 

Post-results

Log into myAQA for post-results services to find information and deadlines and easy summary guide.

Your AQA Languages Subject Support team

We’re pleased to welcome Rachel Livingstone as a new member of the Languages Subject Support team. Rachel joins us straight from the classroom, bringing a wealth of classroom experience and enthusiasm to her work at AQA. Welcome, Rachel!

Specification updates and reminders

GCSE French, German and Spanish: updates to DfE subject content for summer 2026

We emailed you in the spring/summer term 2025 about the Department for Education (DfE)’s updated version of the Subject Content along with a summary of changes. These changes, which apply to exam boards offering the new GCSE French, German and Spanish specifications, aim to provide additional clarity around the requirements.

Rest assured, these changes are minor and will not significantly impact teaching and learning. We’ll be back in touch in the coming days with the small updates we’ve made to our specifications and updated vocabulary lists, along with any changes to our resources.

Unit Award Scheme

We’re excited to announce that the Unit Award Scheme (UAS) has partnered up with the AQA MFL team to develop three brand new suites of units: GCSE French, GCSE German and GCSE Spanish linked to the new GCSE specifications for exams in 2026 and are available online now.

Whether you're already using the Unit Award Scheme or just getting started, there's never been a better time to explore what’s new. 

For this autumn term, you’ll find a selection of introductory MFL UAS units: a whole suite of units that we've mapped to the KS2 curriculum, and carefully curated to match the themes found in the GCSE MFL new specifications. Learning the fundamentals of a language will support essential oracy skills and lay the necessary foundations for further language learning.

UAS continues to support learners of all abilities by recognising every step forward. With thousands of units available, including those mapped to GCSE subjects, UAS helps learners build confidence and stay engaged.

Find out more or get in touch: AQA | Unit Award Scheme | What Is It?

Contact our team

Help is never more than a click away. If you have a question, we’ve got the answer.

Email mfl@aqa.org.uk

Call us on 01423 534 381, 8.00am – 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.