GCSE (for first teaching in 2009) Home Economics: Child Development - J441

Short tasks

• 30% controlled assessment
• Three short tasks to be completed
• Two of the short tasks will assess the following skills: planning, practical work and evaluation
• The third task will be set by OCR and will assess investigation skills
• The three tasks should demonstrate different practical skills and knowledge
• 7 hours per task. (1hr planning, 4-5hrs execution, 1hr evaluation)
• Assessment criteria have been clarified.

• Internally assessed
• Postal moderation
• Learners are still required to demonstrate planning, practical and investigative skills and evaluation skills
• Practical items are not required for moderation purposes
• Evidence of practical work is still necessary in the form of photographic evidence and written work
• Each task is marked out of 20.

Child study task

• 30% controlled assessment
• The Child Study Task will assess the following skills: research, selecting and justifying choices, planning, practical observations and evaluation
• 22 hours for completion
• The assessment criteria have been clarified and the marks have been allocated differently.

• Internally assessed
• Postal moderation
• Learners are still required to observe a child aged 0-5 years
• Learners submit one Child Study Task
• 60 marks
• Quality of written communication is assessed.

Principles of child development

• 40% external assessment
• Un-tiered written paper
• 1 hour 30 minutes for completion
• Learners required to answer five compulsory questions
• Specification content has been modified.

• Externally assessed
• Questions include short answers, picture stimulus, data response, structured and free response format
• Questions will cover all aspects of the specification content
• Quality of written communication is assessed.