Accredited specifications for AS/A level examinations for courses beginning September 2000

The main awarding bodies in the UK are

  Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) made up of the former AEB and NEAB examination
boards,

  EDEXCEL which incorporates BTEC, a leading provider of applied and vocational qualifications and London Examinations,

  Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR)

  Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC)/ Cyd-Bwyllgor Addysg Cymru (CBAC)

  Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment (NICCEA)

Together they currently offer eight accredited AS specifications and eight Advanced level specifications complying with the Subject Criteria for geography.

These specifications will be examined for the last time in summer 2008 for AS level and summer 2009 for A level.

The Subject Criteria for geography were revised in 2006, along with the the criteria for all other subjects, consequently the Awarding Bodies have drawn up new specifications for accreditation by the QCA. There will be one specification per awarding body. Details of the changes and the content and assessment of each specification are available. The new specification will be taught from September 2008 and AS will be examined for the first time in the summer of 2009 with the full A level examined for the first time in 2010.

Each Awarding Body only has one accredited specification conforming to the new criteria.

The new specifications were the topic of the themed CPD day in November 2007. Presentations from the boards and one outlining the changes can be found here.  

Presentations from the CPD Chartered Geographer (Teacher) conference held in Chesterfield in January 2008 can be found here.

'Planning for change and moving forward with conference: The future of A-Level Geography', a speech by Dr Rita Gardner on  27 June 2007 can be downloaded here.