Key teacher questions about Cambridge National L1/2 in Enterprise and Marketing

Mark Sirot-Smith, Business and Economics Subject Advisor

Over the past academic year, we have had around 900 calls and emails to our Customer Support Centre (CSC) regarding the Cambridge National Enterprise and Marketing course. Of these enquiries, around 26% were concerning entries and registrations, 25% were seeking teaching guidance and a further 24% related to internal assessment. 

Most calls are dealt with by the CSC, but many of the subject specific enquiries are passed on to me and the other subject advisors in the Business and Economics team. 

In this blog I’d like to highlight some of the most common queries we’ve had over the past year and share the answers provided. I’ve split the questions into four sections: general questions about the qualification and assessment, then questions about each unit, R067, R068 and R069. 

I hope you’ll find the answers useful, but remember, if you do have a query that is not addressed here, please contact the CSC on 01223 553998 or email support@ocr.org.uk.

General enquiries

When does the set assignment change and how long is it valid for?

The new assignment brief for R068 is available on Teach Cambridge from 1 June each year. It is live for the whole of the following academic year, meaning the last submission date is the following summer. 

The assignment brief for R069 remains the same each year and will not change. 

We have a student who is unable to attend school every day due to on-going health issues. Are they able to work from home? 

When a student is unwell and at home for a period of time, work can be done away from school provided you have regular check points/supervision with the student to be able to verify that the work is their own (see section 6.2.1 of the specification). This could be through a Teams/Zoom call, with you asking questions about the work they have done, such as what research they found to be most helpful, and which part they have enjoyed writing about the most. The use of questioning will mean you can authenticate the student’s work. 

I am assessing my students’ work. Should I be annotating their work and writing detailed comments on the Unit Recording Sheet (URS)?

There is no need to write detailed comments on the URS. If you use the interactive version, downloadable from Teach Cambridge (login required), you can highlight the mark band comments that relate to the student’s work and use the best-fit approach to determine the mark to be awarded for each task. 

You must include where the evidence can be found (usually the page numbers for the task) on the URS. 

If a student fails to achieve all the strands in mark band 1 criteria, should they be awarded zero marks? 

No. Even if a student achieves one of the mark band 1 criteria, they should be awarded a mark. The range of marks available within each band is identified on the marking grid and URS. 

I am the only teacher delivering the qualification at my school. Do I need to get my assessing standardised? 

No. You only need to standardise assessment within a centre if your students’ work has been assessed by more than one teacher.

I have entered some students for a resubmission opportunity for R069 after an original submission in the January series. Unfortunately, some of them that have not taken advantage of this and added nothing to their original submission. Can you advise what I should do?

You should withdraw the candidates’ unit entries before the mark submission deadline of 15 May. This will save you having to enter students whose work is unchanged and will prevent them from being called up for the moderator’s sample.

R067 enquiries

I have used the sample assessment paper and the practice paper from Teach Cambridge with my class. Where can I access more R067 exam papers?

All past papers are uploaded to Teach Cambridge, our secure website (so students cannot access them), shortly after the exam date. The mark scheme follows on the day the results are released. 

However, if you need more test papers you can create your own using ExamBuilder which can be accessed through Teach Cambridge. This function uses relevant questions from our legacy specification exam papers and enables you to create papers that test specific topics or require a bespoke running time to fit in with lesson times.

R068 enquiries

Are there any issues in providing candidates with a document that has the tasks copied and pasted from the assignment on to it digitally? There are no edits or changes to the wording, it is just a direct copy from the assignment booklet.

There are no issues with using the assignment tasks or the tips from the assignment brief with your students.

Task 3: Can my students change the options provided in the R068 scenario?

No, even if their market research suggests a preference for an additional product option, they must stick to the options provided in the assignment brief scenario. This is because additional options cannot be costed for Task 5.

Task 3: Can my students use computer graphics or shape outlines to produce their product design?

Yes, the task is not a test of their artistic skills. As long as the product design is their own, they may use such tools to help them.

Task 5: Some of my students have projected sales that result in a loss being made. What should I do?

The scenario is designed so that a financially viable business proposal is possible. If your students have come up with a product that would make a loss they should be encouraged to go back and review their pricing and projected sales.

R069 enquiries

Some of my students are resubmitting R068 using the new assignment scenario. What scenario should they use for their R069 work?

Students may use either R068 scenario for their R069 work. R069 is a generic assignment and does not change each year. 

Task 4: When it comes to the pitches, would a teacher who does not teach the group be classed as an independent witness? 

Yes. The panel must include at least one independent witness, that is someone other than the class teacher. The teacher will supervise the pitch and complete the OCR Teacher Observation Record. Many centres invite members of SLT or local businesspeople to join the panel. 

Tasks 3 and 4: We have a student who is extremely nervous and is unable to do their presentation pitch in front of others. Is there an alternative for this student? 

This is not a unique situation and there are several ways around it. These include: 

• They could do their pitch on their own and video it. The video can then be shown to the witnesses who could write down any questions. The student can then video themselves answering these questions. All areas of the marking criteria can still be accessed this way. 
• If they are unable to present at all then they could record a PowerPoint presentation using the ‘dictate’ tool which could then be played to the witnesses and then questions could be asked as above. This would however restrict how they could access the criteria for pitching skills (as per the Teacher Observation Record). 
• If you have a special centre for students with anxiety, the student could present to a member of staff there. It wouldn’t be the assessor, but we could make a reasonable adjustment to acknowledge the professionalism of the centre staff. You would need to contact our Special Requirements team for more details of this option.

Task 5: The task asks for a review of ‘Your promotional materials and the approximate costs of producing them.’ It is very hard for students to find realistic promotional costs, what are they expected to do?

Only approximate costs of producing promotional materials are required. Students are not expected to undertake further research for this task, but show an understanding that, for example, a magazine advert will be more expensive than a social media post.

Further information

If you have a query I haven’t covered here, why not have a look at the Frequently asked questions section on Teach Cambridge?

Stay connected

Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you have questions you can email us at support@ocr.org.uk call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_BusEcon. You can also sign up for email updates to receive information about resources and support.

About the author

Mark recently joined OCR after over 30 years in teaching, lecturing and senior leadership in a variety of secondary schools and FE colleges. He loves being active: walking his dog, playing tennis and visiting his three grown-up children in the midlands and north, especially if it coincides with a Crystal Palace away game!