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GCSE Design Technology (Pearson) coursework - what deadline has your school set?

9 replies

TamanTun · 25/02/2026 10:45

My son is finalising his DT coursework and the school have brought forward the submission date to this week. I know the deadline is 15th May according to the exam board and schools need time to collate and submit but this seems like a long time in advance, especially with mocks next week, is anyone else's child doing this and what date have they been given by their school?

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WhateverImcalled · 25/02/2026 20:42

Fairly normal for course work - you seem to underestimate the work teachers need to do. They will mark every piece from every student (alongside their normal work) and then a number will be reviewed by a colleague to see if they agree with the marks before submitting to the exam board.

clary · 25/02/2026 21:08

Was he given decent notice of the deadline? Will he complete in time?

I would imagine one reason for the earlier deadline is to allow for some slippage – as in, there will always be students who push it to the last minute (not your DS!) and this way, there is a bit of leeway.

Also yy as @WhateverImcalled says, it takes a fair amount of time for teachers to assess the CW and the moderate it internally. Especially if there is a big cohort. When we did MFL CW (pre reform) I would certainly make sure the final piece was done by mid-March at the latest, and I imagine the work to mark one set of speaking assessments would be less that for DT CW.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 25/02/2026 21:13

Feb 1/2 term was always our deadline. Or just after.

FrippEnos · 25/02/2026 21:20

Unless they have changed the rules, there also needs to be time to feedback to the pupils what the marks are so that the pupil can appeal them if they believe that the marks are incorrect.

Meaning appeal, remark/moderate and external validation times need to be taken in to account if required.

Sweetbeansandmochi · 25/02/2026 21:27

I can’t talk for DT but I always tried to get all my Drama practical coursework done by Feb half term.

You see it’s not many school weeks until Easter when you need to have everything done and dusted by as after Easter it’s all revision. No new learning.

Plus with coursework everyone does the most work in the week before it - and so you might as well get that burst of work done earlier.

MrsHamlet · 25/02/2026 21:31

They should have published their schedule for internal reviews - ours is a month.

So the May 15th deadline is actually April 15th for the work to have been marked and moderated.

That takes a chunk of time, dependent on the cohort size. All of our NEAs are therefore to be completed before we break for Easter.

Anonymousemouses · 26/02/2026 13:26

Is it similar to Engineering? My DD is doing engineering and the practical has to be in tomorrow (she brought it home to finish over half-term, then told me last Saturday that it needed to be in this week, and she hadn't worked on it much, I was not happy).

The NEA has to be finished in the next couple of weeks.

She's done one Drama performance piece for her GCSE, she has her second one coming up in the next couple of weeks.

FrippEnos · 26/02/2026 15:11

Anonymousemouses · 26/02/2026 13:26

Is it similar to Engineering? My DD is doing engineering and the practical has to be in tomorrow (she brought it home to finish over half-term, then told me last Saturday that it needed to be in this week, and she hadn't worked on it much, I was not happy).

The NEA has to be finished in the next couple of weeks.

She's done one Drama performance piece for her GCSE, she has her second one coming up in the next couple of weeks.

It is pretty much the same

TamanTun · 09/03/2026 08:01

Thanks all, the school extended the deadline

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