Preparing for a new academic year teaching Cambridge Nationals in Health and Social Care or Child Development

Sarah Ash, Subject Advisor for Health and Social Care and Child Development

It’s the beginning of a new academic year! Whether you are an existing teacher or new to teaching Health and Social Care or Child Development this blog will provide you with the best start for the year ahead. 

Where do you begin? 

Candidates will have received their results from the summer exams and Active Results will help you to analyse your candidates’ performance and compare outcomes with national averages. The examiner and principal moderator’s reports will explain what was seen across the national cohort, explaining what went well and areas of weakness seen in the exam and the NEA units. It’s well worth looking at these reports and seeing if you can apply the insight to fine tune your own teaching methods for the forthcoming year. 

It’s also worth checking that you have the most recent version of the specification. At the time of writing the latest version for both Health and Social Care and Child Development is version 4. You can download the specifications from Teach Cambridge or the public website. 

Making use of the specification 

Time is a precious commodity when you’re teaching, and reading the detail of the specification isn’t always top priority. It might help to direct you to sections of the specification that will benefit you most over the coming year. 

Section 4: Qualification content 

This section of the specification includes the teaching content for each unit and sets out what you need to teach your students, including assessment guidance and synoptic elements. For non-examined assessed (NEA) units there are the grading criteria. Although it might seem obvious to say, it is worth remembering that anything that is in the teaching content column must be taught. 

You will also see that next to the teaching content for examined units that there is a breadth and depth column unit and an exemplification column for the NEA. Anything that is included in the breadth and depth column should also be included in your teaching. However, the content in the exemplification column are examples. You do not have to use these but they are often a good starting point if you are new to teaching these subjects or if you’re not a subject specialist. 

Section 6: Non examined assessment 

This provides guidance on the completion of the NEA units and what your responsibilities are as the teacher. The requirements for delivering and marking the OCR-set assignments are explained and importantly section 6.3 sets out the feedback you can give to students on work in progress. There are links to JCQ guidance as well which are important to read when conducting coursework. You can also find details on marking the NEA units and how to use a ‘best fit’ approach. 

Some of the NEA units include a Teacher Observation Record and guidance notes which are included with the live set assignment. Section 6.3.6 gives additional information on completing these forms. 

Section 7: Administration of Cambridge Nationals 

This section gives an overview of the processes involved in administering this qualification. 

Resources to support you on Teach Cambridge 

Teach Cambridge is our secure platform for teachers and it’s where you will find the resources required to teach and assess these qualifications. If you don’t have access yet, contact your exams officer who can create an account for you giving access to the full range of resources. 

We have curriculum planners and schemes of work for each of the units in our qualifications. The purpose of these is to help you deliver the course by providing a planned programme of delivery and a structure for teaching units, along with useful links. We’ve also given you blank versions of these documents if you want to produce your own. 

Live assignments are always released on 1 June. They are uploaded directly to Teach Cambridge and the previous year’s assignment will be removed. However, these must not be used for practice purposes, and neither can previous live assignments. This is why the sample assessment material is so important as these can be shared with students and used for practice. We have sample assessment material for examined and NEA units for Child Development and Health and Social Care. 

As explained in section 6.2 of the specification, one of the requirements for delivering and marking the OCR-set assignments is that you must share the Student guide to NEA assignments with your students. This document explains how to complete the assignment and how it is marked. It also explains the help you can give your students, what is meant by plagiarism and referencing, and what students need to know about using artificial intelligence (AI). 

Know the marking criteria and command words 

Each NEA unit is assessed against marking criteria and when you assess your students’ work the marks you give must be directly related to these. If you have been through moderation the beginning of the year is a chance to review the feedback in your centre report for the tasks and criteria in the assignment. 

If you are new to teaching these qualifications, familiarise yourself with the command words in Appendix B of the specification or from the set assignment. Also, read the section on the use of a ‘best fit’ approach to marking in section 6.4.1. 

Marking should always be positive, rewarding achievement rather than penalising failure or omissions. We have written an NEA marking guide that you will find useful when marking your students’ NEA work. Only available on Teach Cambridge, you will find it under the main Assessment menu in Assessment support. This handy guide gives you hints and tips for some of the criteria and reminders of what you should be aware of and remember to do when marking. 

Professional development 

Our professional development events will support you as you begin teaching these qualifications – and many of them are free. 

If you’re new we particularly recommend booking the following:

• Starting to teach: to be ready for the classroom and assessment 
• Ask the moderator: engage with the moderator on the issues that matter most to you. 

For teachers who are familiar with our qualifications we recommend: 

• Exploring the exam: uses past series’ assessment materials, including new candidate exemplars, to help equip you with the knowledge and understanding to optimise your delivery. 
• Exam review: using the examiner’s report this course is designed to highlight key findings from the most-recent exam series. 
• Enhancing your teaching: takes a deep dive into areas of the NEA units to enhance your subject knowledge.
• Exploring the NEA: this year this course is available as an online or face-to-face event and will offer guidance on how to establish effective internal marking and moderation processes using new exemplar material. 

You can find out more about these and other professional development courses on our website or on Teach Cambridge. We also have a handy professional development programme guide. 

On Teach Cambridge we also offer eLearning courses that you can complete online at a time and pace to suit you. 

• It’s particularly important to complete the Essentials for the NEA course which has been designed to prepare and support you for the delivery of the new Cambridge Nationals suite NEA set assignments.
• There is also an eLearning course entitled A focus on internal assessment which has been designed for you to build your knowledge, skills and understanding on internal assessment. It will enable you to prepare for internal assessment, understand the requirements and guidance of internal assessment and general administration practices. 

Don’t forget that subject advisors are also here to support you in understanding and delivery of the specifications so please do stay connected and contact us if you need any help or have any questions (see below)!

Stay connected

Please let us know if you have any questions or if you would like a chat to us about this blog or delivering Health and Social Care or Child Development. We also welcome ongoing feedback from centres. 

Share your thoughts in the comments below. You can also call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_Health or @OCR_Vocational. Also, you can book a Teams meeting with us directly. 

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If you are considering teaching any of our qualifications, use the expression of interest form to let us know, so that we can help you with more information. 

About the author

Before joining OCR in 2018, Sarah was a teacher and Subject Lead of Health and Social Care and worked in secondary schools and sixth forms in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. She was a sixth form tutor and moderated on a previous Level 3 HSC qualification. She has also worked as a teacher in a social care setting for young people aged 16-18 transitioning from living in care to becoming independent. At OCR Sarah has been involved in the redevelopment of Cambridge Nationals in Health and Social Care and Child Development, and the redevelopment of the Cambridge Advanced National (AAQ) in Health and Social Care.