AQA History: September 2025 updates

Welcome to our Autumn 2025 newsletter

After a busy summer term of History conferences and other teacher events the Subject Support team earned some time off. Of course, this was largely historically based as I visited various castles in Northumberland and Emma enjoying the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Now, it’s that busy time of year getting back into the swing of things – we hope it’s going well your end.

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.

Katie Hall
Subject Lead for History

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

For autumn 2025, we’ve developed a range of free professional development training courses to help you improve your knowledge and classroom confidence.

• GCSE History training for autumn can be found on our website including 'live’ Preparing for 2026 events.
• A-level History training for autumn can be found on our website including 'live’ NEA Planning and Preparing for 2026 events.

The autumn term is packed with events, so keep an eye out for updates and reminders.

Marking non-exam assessment (NEA)

Are you looking to improve the accuracy of your 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 moderators?

myResources

Find everything you need on myAQA

Historic Environment packs

• 2026 Historic Environment packs and Schemes of Work can be found on Centre Services.
• The materials for the 2027 Historic Environment sites will be available soon – watch this space!
• More details about everything GCSE Historic Environment can be found in specification reminders below.

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.

myNetwork

Curriculum Connect: Exploring summer 2025

Join us for these events where we will share high-level insights into the data from the summer series, key findings from the examiners reports and areas for improvement to support student progress.

Come and meet your History Subject Support team to reflect on the 2025 series and network with other teachers. Click on the links below to book your slot!

• GCSE History Exploring Summer 2025 – 25 September 2025
• A-level History Exploring Summer 2025 – 2 October 2025

Our community links

Many of our heritage partners are developing resources to help teachers. A new Padlet on Migration to Britain has been developed by the British Library – use it with your learners across KS3-5.

mySupport

Post-results services

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

Free@3

We’re delighted to extend our popular ‘Free@3’ appointments, following the success of last term’s trial. These 20-minute sessions gave us the chance to speak with many of you - mainly about resources, exams and qualifications and we’re keen to keep those conversations going.

Look out for the History Free@3 booking link coming to our website soon – we're looking forward to supporting you across our various platforms.

AQA NEA advisers

Each school or college has a dedicated NEA adviser. Our advisers are experienced teachers and moderators who can offer guidance and support throughout the academic year on delivering NEA.

They’re there to answer your questions, explain specification requirements, share teaching ideas and discuss general processes, planning and approaches to NEA tasks.

Their details may have changed from last year - so you can find them on Centre Services by going to ‘Pre-exams’ and then clicking on ‘NEA Advisers’. If you do not have an assigned adviser, please contact eos@aqa.org.uk.

Please be aware that contact details are confidential and must not be shared with third parties including students and on social media. Further information about our commitment to data privacy can be found in our privacy notice.

Specification updates and reminders

GCSE History: Historic environment resource packs 2027

Look out for the 2027 GCSE History Historic environment resource packs which will be available on Centre Services this September.

The Historic Environment Sites for 2027 are:

• Norman England, c1066—c1100: The Battle of Hastings
• Medieval England, the reign of Edward I, 1272—1307: The Battle of Stirling Bridge
• Elizabethan England, c1568—1603: The Spanish Armada
• Restoration England, 1660—1685: The Dutch Raid on the Medway, June 1667.

Historic environment sites for 2026

We change the specified sites/locations each year, and you can find information about the sites that will be assessed for summer 2026 below.

• Norman England, c1066—c1100: Pevensey Castle
• Medieval England, the reign of Edward I, 1272—1307: Caernarfon Castle
• Elizabethan England, c1568—1603: The Globe
• Restoration England, 1660—1685: Ham House

The resource packs for 2026 can also be found on Centre Services under Assessment and Training>Teacher Support Materials.

GCSE History: Historic environment sites for 2028

We're delighted to announce the following specified historic sites for our GCSE History exams in 2028. These are covered in the historic environment element of the British depth studies in the specification.

• Norman England, c1066—c1100: The White Tower
• Medieval England, the reign of Edward I, 1272—1307: Acton Burnell Castle
• Elizabethan England, c1568—1603: Kenilworth Castle
• Restoration England, 1660—1685: St Paul’s Cathedral

To help you in teaching the sites, we’ll provide you with updated and improved resource packs that will help you in preparing your learners for the exams in 2028. These resource packs will be released in the autumn term two years before the exam (from September 2026 for the summer 2028 exams) and will be available in the teacher support section of Centre Services.

Summer 2026 exams

Non-exam assessment (NEA)

Question approval form deadline

A reminder that the deadline for submitting the 2026 NEA Question Approval Form to your allocated AQA NEA adviser is Monday 20 October 2025. The form is available on our website.

Because of the high volume of forms expected at this time of year, please note it may take your NEA adviser a little longer than usual to respond.

NEA word count reminder

We’ve a helpful reminder about the A-level History NEA work limit as outlined in our A-level specification.

• The NEA has a word limit of 4500 words, there’s no tolerance in this limit, and a 5-mark penalty will be applied for those who exceed 4500 words. This has been set to make sure all learners are treated equally.
• If a learner exceeds the word limit in their NEA, please do not apply the 5-mark penalty in your own marking or internal moderation – the penalty will be applied by an AQA moderator in the summer.

NEA digital upload

You can find detailed guidance on how to upload your 7042/C files on to Centre marks submission (CMS) and FAQs for teachers on preparing students’ work on our website.

The use of AI within assessments

JCQ’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use in Assessments: Protecting the Integrity of Qualifications document provides teachers/assessors involved in delivering JCQ qualifications with the information they need to manage use of AI in assessments. All relevant staff need to be aware of and familiarise themselves with the new guidance and instructions. If AI misuse is detected or suspected by your school or college, and the declaration of authentication has been signed, the case must be reported.

Remember, if you have any learners who use a word processor, it must have all internet connectivity disabled. This is to help prevent, among other things, the potential misuse of AI in exams.

Using AQA resources AI tools

AQA does not allow anybody (including schools and colleges) to use any AQA materials to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered tools or technologies. This includes question papers, specifications, mark schemes, reports, teaching resources and other such materials. While we understand how useful these tools are, putting any AQA material into an AI tool would be in breach of copyright law, and AQA policy.

Student Advisory Group – recruitment for 2025/26

We’re looking for learners to join our Student Advisory Group to help us make key decisions about the future of exams. We’d love to hear from learners who’ve completed AQA specification GCSEs since 2024, as well as from those taking AQA AS and A-levels. We also really want to hear from students taking our vocational qualifications, or vocational qualifications with any other exam board, as long as they have sat at least one AQA qualification.

Since the Student Advisory group began they’ve; represented the student voice each year at the Parliamentary Youth Reception, shared their views at the Curriculum and Assessment Youth Shadow Panel, fed into our Curriculum and Assessment call for evidence response, given insights on AI in the Classroom at the 2025 Festival of Education, helped with reviewing books for our English literature set texts list, and much more.

So if you know any learners who you think would be interested, please pass this on. Full details of the role and how to apply can be found on our website. Applications open on Monday 8 September and close at 5.00pm on Monday 22 September 2025.

Contact our team

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

• Email history@aqa.org.uk
• Call us on 0161 958 3865 8.00am – 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.