Highly controversial changes to Wales' new GCSEs are to go ahead including fewer science and literature qualifications. The first 26 new "made for Wales" GCSEs will include more course work and digital assessment and will be taught from September 2025 and sat in 2027.
The changes are being brought in to fit Wales’ new curriculum. The first pupils to study the new GCSEs will be learners currently in Year 7 aged 11 and 12 who will be in Year 10 in September 2025 and will sit the exams in 2027.
Among the most controversial changes, pupils will no longer study and take three separate science GCSEs. Instead pupils will be able to take either a double or a single science award incorporating chemistry, physics and biology. Science organisations called some of the changes "damaging" and "disappointing". See more on the criticism here.
