National Exam Seasons

The Joint Council of Qualifications (JCQ) allows awarding bodies to deliver two main exam seasons for academic subjects annually. The November exam series for students resitting English language GCSE or Maths GCSE in KS5, and the Summer series which runs from May to June annually, is for GCSE at KS4 and KS5 and GCE (AS and A Levels) in KS5.

Vocational Qualifications for BTEC’s/ RSL also have an External Assessments window as a separate series that takes place from January to May.  KS4 Strand students taking qualifications with these awarding bodies can expect to sit an external assessment during year 10 or year 11, during Term 3 and/or Term 4.

Vocational Qualifications for NCFE external written exams will take place on the 4th June 2024 at 1:30pm. 

Summer 2025 Exam season

Please see the timetable below for the Summer 2025 Exam dates for all qualifications. 

All exams students are entered for must be attended. Exams start at 9AM or 1PM, students must arrrie 15 minutes before to be seated and must ensure they do not bring in any prohibited items to the exam rooms. 

Updates for Summer 2024

Upcoming Practical Exams:

• Edexcel GCSE Art and Design Option - Thursday 25th April 2024.
• Edexcel GCSE Photography Option - Thursday 25th April 2024.
• AQA GCSE Textile Option - Monday 29th April 2024 and Tuesday 30th April 2024.

Full Summer Timetable in PDF Available in Term 2:

Please see the full summer 2024 examination timetable for our school, available in PDF. This timetable will only show generic information for the subject and papers of each exam such as date and time, exam code and title of the exam. This will not show individual seating and rooming. Individual timetables will be sent to students home addresses in April 2024. 

Contingency dates for the diary:

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, further resilience was needed within the exam timetables. A single contingency day was not felt to be sufficient if a national event or incident had a significant effect on the exam timetable. For example, summer exams could be affected by extremely high temperatures. For the June 2024 exams, the awarding bodies have introduced two additional half-day contingency sessions. These are on the afternoon of 6 June and 13 June 2024. The standard contingency day remains at the end of the timetable, which is scheduled on 26 June 2024. There are contingency sessions within the Summer 2024 exam timetable. 

Students taking Functional skills, any additional Level 2 qualifications, GCSE's and GCE's are reminded they must ensure they are available on all three dates listed above for any rescheduled exams.