Redesigning GCSE History: enriching learners’ understanding of Wales and the world
Oliver Stacey, Senior Qualifications Manager, reviews the new GCSE History qualifications and the key changes teachers and learners should know.
History is central to the humanities area of learning and experience within Curriculum for Wales. It consistently features in the top 10 most popular GCSE subjects in Wales.
The benefits of studying history include:
- helping us to make sense of the world we live in and how past events have shaped and influenced it
- helping to develop a range of transferable skills such as analysis, evaluation and interpretation
- enabling an appreciation of diversity, for example by learning about past societies and cultures and
- considering a range of perspectives and viewpoints on historical events
- fostering a sense of cynefin and belonging as you study the history of an area or community you identify with
Why is GCSE History changing?
The new GCSE History qualification will be introduced in September 2026, as part of the new National Qualifications for 14 to16-year-olds in Wales. While building on the strengths of the existing GCSE, there are a number of exciting changes. Some of the key drivers for these changes are as follows.
Curriculum for Wales
The Curriculum for Wales has been the catalyst for the reform of 14–16 qualifications.
The new GCSE has been designed to relate to and support the new curriculum. For example, Welsh history is now mandatory and it is therefore important that this topic is appropriately reflected within the qualification.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic histories, identities and cultures
Within Wales, and internationally, there has been a growing appreciation that history specifications are often heavily focused on white Eurocentric perspectives.
Qualification reform has presented an opportunity for the new GCSE to more fully reflect Black, Asian and minority ethnic histories, identities and cultures.
This is evidenced in some of the new historical topics that centres can chose from, such as the Mughal Empire.
Feedback from co-creation
When developing the design requirements for the new GCSE, we adopted a co-creation approach with stakeholders.
As part of the process, we received strong feedback that learners would benefit from studying a broader range of time periods rather than focusing on early-modern and modern history. In response to this, our design requirements for the qualification specify that all learners need to study a historical topic from the medieval period.
Non-examination assessment
During co-creation, opportunities to change the balance between exam and non-examination assessment (NEA) were identified. As a result, the new qualification will consist of two NEA units contributing 40% of the overall qualification (as opposed to 20% in the current qualification).
The Unit 2 NEA will be delivered as an onscreen assessment. This provides multiple benefits to centres, including opportunities to broaden the types of sources and interpretations in the assessment and making the assessment more manageable to deliver. The Unit 4 NEA allows learners to develop their responses in non-traditional formats, such as podcasts, which can encourage deeper engagement and creativity.
Both NEA units promote self-reflection, supporting learners to take greater ownership of their learning and to develop as more independent and reflective learners.
More information about NEA in the new GSCEs can be found here and about the Unit 2 NEA for GSCE History here.
Supporting teachers through change
Many stakeholders have responded positively to the changes and have welcomed the choice and flexibility within the qualification, the range of time spans covered and the balance between breadth and depth.
We are aware that there are some concerns from teachers particularly around lack of familiarity with the NEA tasks and with some of the new topics in the specification. We took the decision to delay the introduction of this qualification by a year to give teachers more time to prepare.
WJEC has published an extensive range of bilingual digital resources to support the teaching and learning of many of the topics within the new GCSE. They have also provided a variety of online and face-to-face professional learning to support teachers and centres as they prepare for the delivery of this innovative new qualification.
To support centres engaging with unfamiliar material, WJEC has developed detailed Guidance for Teaching documents for all Unit 1–3 options. These include Schemes of Learning with suggested teaching times, resources, and activities designed to help teachers deliver the new qualification effectively in the classroom.