Nottingham's GCSE French students in summer 2026 sat a reformed specification under new accreditation codes, with no directly comparable 2025 result to measure it against.
Book a Free ConsultationGCSE French in Nottingham is examined under a specification introduced for first teaching in September 2024, with summer 2026 its first award year — Ofqual's own guide states these reformed language GCSEs "are to be awarded for the first time in summer 2026". A 2026 grade boundary therefore has no directly comparable 2025 result, and which exam boards currently offer GCSE French is set out below.
Studying for a reformed exam with no exam history behind it yet? Our expert GCSE French tutors help students across Nottingham prepare for the 2026 specification, whichever board their school has entered them for.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppThat reform sits on top of an earlier, separate change. In 2019 Ofqual decided to adjust GCSE French and German grading standards to align with Spanish, not the reverse, and the adjustment was actually phased in over the two exam series that followed, landing fully by the summer 2024 results under the outgoing specification. Leading Tuition's guide to why GCSE French and German grades rose sets out that earlier change in full; this page covers what is different about the new 2026 specification instead.
AQA's current GCSE French specification is 8652, introduced for first teaching in September 2024. AQA's own site marks the specification it replaces, 8658, as follows: "OUTGOING … This is the legacy specification. Please visit GCSE French 8652 for the current specification (first teach Sept 2024)" — a working page is not proof a code is still current, and 8658 remains reachable on AQA's own site despite no longer being what schools teach. Pearson Edexcel's equivalent change carried its subject code forward under a new suffix: "Edexcel's [code] changed from 1FR0 to 1FR1", with the reformed GCSE French (2024) specification first taught from 2024 and first assessed in 2026.
Ofqual's guide for schools and colleges, updated 3 February 2026, confirms both tiers continue under the reformed specifications: "reformed versions of GCSE French, German and Spanish have been available for teaching since September 2024 and are to be awarded for the first time in summer 2026 … these GCSEs are tiered with students sitting all of their assessments at either the higher or foundation tier". The same guide warns that a new specification's grade boundaries carry more uncertainty than an established one's: "it should not be assumed that grade boundaries on the new versions will be at the same mark, or set at the same proportion of the maximum mark, as previous versions".
This site's own Nottingham GCSE Spanish page found that GCSE Spanish is offered only by AQA and Edexcel, with OCR carrying no Spanish qualification and Eduqas's own current list no longer carrying one either. GCSE French sits in the same position. Checked directly against each board's own site on 7 September 2026:
| Exam board | Specification | Code | Status (checked 7 Sept 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AQA | GCSE French 8652 | 8652 (legacy 8658 marked OUTGOING) | Current, first teaching Sept 2024 |
| Pearson Edexcel | GCSE French (2024) | 1FR1 (was 1FR0) | Current, first teaching 2024, first assessment 2026 |
| OCR | No live GCSE French | A J720 details page exists but is absent from the live list | Not offered — absent from OCR's live GCSE subject list, checked 7 Sept 2026 |
| WJEC Eduqas | No live GCSE French | — | AS/A Level French only — Eduqas's live qualifications finder, checked 7 Sept 2026 |
A qualification-details page for "French J720" exists on OCR's own site, marked "from 2024", but a URL resolving on ocr.org.uk is not by itself evidence a qualification is live: OCR's site returns the same generic page for made-up subject and code combinations, and the word "French" does not appear anywhere in OCR's live GCSE subject list, which carries no modern-languages GCSE at all beyond Latin. Eduqas's own live qualifications finder lists AS/A Level French but no GCSE French; an Examiners' Report or Resources Guide can belong to WJEC (Wales) rather than Eduqas, or to a legacy specification, so neither document on its own confirms a live Eduqas GCSE. Which board a specific Nottingham school actually uses is set by the school itself, not published centrally by DfE, so it is worth confirming directly with the school or exam department.
Your child sits one board's mark scheme, not a generic checklist. Our expert GCSE French tutors help Nottingham students work to their own school's actual board and tier, including dedicated preparation for the speaking assessment.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppSummer 2026 was the first award year of the reformed GCSE French specifications, and the boundaries set for it apply only to that specification — not to the outgoing AQA 8658 or the pre-2024 Edexcel 1FR0 papers a 2025 candidate would have sat. On AQA's Higher tier French paper (8652H), a grade 9 required 179 of 200 marks (89.5%) and a grade 7 required 149 of 200 (74.5%). On Pearson Edexcel's Higher tier French paper (1FR1), a grade 9 required 175 of 200 marks (87.5%) and a grade 7 required 147 of 200 (73.5%).
| Board | Tier | Spec / paper code | Grade 9 | Grade 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AQA | Higher | 8652H | 179 of 200 (89.5%) | 149 of 200 (74.5%) |
| Pearson Edexcel | Higher | 1FR1 | 175 of 200 (87.5%) | 147 of 200 (73.5%) |
Ofqual's own guidance is explicit that a new specification's boundaries should not be read against the specification it replaced, describing the two as carrying independently set grade boundaries rather than a continuous scale. A parent comparing a 2026 French result to an older sibling's 2024 or 2025 result, or to a mark scheme found online from before September 2024, is not comparing like with like — the paper, the specification and the accreditation number have all changed.
Independent schools do appear in the Department for Education's own subjects-entered data, and Nottingham High School is a clear example. Checked directly at the Department's Get Information about Schools register on 7 September 2026, Nottingham High (URN 122915) is a confirmed open, mixed, selective independent school with 1,178 pupils. Its own subjects-entered table at DfE's Compare School and College Performance service lists six languages side by side: French 19, German 31, Spanish 31, Latin 6, Chinese 4, Punjabi 1. French entries run at a little over three-fifths the size of German's or Spanish's at Nottingham High — 19 against 31 apiece — an original ratio calculated for this page from the school's own published entries, not a DfE-published rate.
| Nottingham school | Type | GCSE French entries | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nottingham High School | Independent, selective (URN 122915) | 19 | Also teaches German (31), Spanish (31), Latin (6), Chinese (4), Punjabi (1) |
| Fernwood School | State-funded | 68 | Zero Spanish entries in the same subjects-entered table |
| Ellis Guilford School | State-funded | 30 | Also enters pupils for Spanish, confirmed at DfE Compare |
| The Oakwood Academy | State-funded | 21 | Also enters pupils for Spanish, confirmed at DfE Compare |
Fernwood School shows the clearest case of a Nottingham school where French, not Spanish, is the language taught at scale: 68 GCSE French entries against zero for Spanish in the same subjects-entered table — the reverse of the citywide pattern, where Spanish outnumbers French overall. Ellis Guilford School and The Oakwood Academy both continue to enter pupils for French alongside Spanish, at 30 and 21 entries respectively. These four schools are not a ranking of every Nottingham secondary; a family's own school result is the one that matters, and it can be looked up directly on DfE's Compare School and College Performance service.
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Nottingham City's own 2024/25 results, published in the Department for Education's Key Stage 4 performance release, recorded 387 pupils entered for GCSE French. Of those, 67% (261 pupils) reached grade 4 or above and 58% (223 pupils) reached grade 5 or above. Nottingham City is registered separately from the surrounding Nottinghamshire county on DfE's own systems, under local-authority code 892 — this site's Nottingham GCSE Spanish page sets out that boundary in full, and it applies here in exactly the same way: a figure describing "Nottingham" needs checking against which of the two local authorities it actually covers before it can be compared to anything else.
A programme starts with a short diagnostic against a student's own school, board and tier — AQA 8652 or Edexcel French (2024) — rather than a generic GCSE French checklist, because boards do not weight or examine the four skills in identical ways. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are practised against real past-paper material and marked to the student's own board's published scheme, with dedicated time set aside for the speaking assessment, which most students find the hardest element to prepare for without a conversation partner.
Progress is checked roughly every half-term against a student's own target grade, and pacing is adjusted where a mock exam shows a gap closing faster, or more slowly, than planned. Alongside GCSE French, tutors also work with Nottingham students taking German, Spanish or a community language for the same EBacc pillar, plus the wider subject mix Nottingham GCSE students combine it with, including Maths and English Language and Literature.
Ready to start? Our expert Nottingham GCSE French tutors build a plan around your child's actual school, exam board and tier from the first session. Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 58 reviews, read on 22 August 2026.
Book a Free ConsultationMessage us on WhatsAppSee our full GCSE tuition overview, our GCSE resources for parents, plus our overview of tutoring across Nottingham for other subjects and levels. Ofqual's decision on French and German grading is published in its news story Inter-subject comparability in GCSE modern foreign languages (5 November 2019), and current specification status is drawn directly from AQA and Pearson Edexcel's own published pages, and from OCR's live GCSE subject list and Eduqas's live qualifications finder, checked on 7 September 2026. Nottingham City figures are drawn from the Department for Education's Key Stage 4 performance, 2024/25 release and its Compare School and College Performance service; every named school's registration was independently confirmed at the Department's Get Information about Schools register.
Ofqual decided on 5 November 2019 that GCSE French and German grading needed adjustment but GCSE Spanish did not, stating there was "a sufficiently strong case to make an adjustment to grading standards in French and German, but not Spanish", because Spanish "does not appear, statistically, to be severely graded and entries are not declining". The change aligned French and German grading to Spanish's, not the other way round, and was intended for the 2020 exam series. Leading Tuition's own guide to why GCSE French and German grades rose sets out how it was actually phased in over the two exam series that followed, landing fully by the summer 2024 results.
No. GCSE French was re-specified for first teaching in September 2024, with summer 2026 as the first award year of the new specification — AQA's own site marks the specification it replaced, 8658, "OUTGOING", and directs schools to the current 8652 specification instead. Ofqual's guide for schools and colleges states plainly that "it should not be assumed that grade boundaries on the new versions will be at the same mark, or set at the same proportion of the maximum mark, as previous versions". A 2026 French grade boundary should be read on its own terms, not measured against 2025's.
As of 7 September 2026, AQA (French 8652, first teaching September 2024) and Pearson Edexcel (French (2024), 1FR1, first assessment summer 2026) list GCSE French. OCR's live GCSE subject list contains no French, and Eduqas's live qualifications finder lists AS/A Level French only, not GCSE. GCSE Spanish is offered by these same boards, AQA and Edexcel.
Nottingham High School, an independent selective school confirmed open at the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools register (URN 122915), entered 19 pupils for GCSE French in its most recent published results, alongside 31 each for German and Spanish, 6 for Latin, 4 for Chinese and 1 for Punjabi — a little over three-fifths the size of its German or Spanish entries. Fernwood School enters French (68) and German (67) in almost identical numbers but recorded zero Spanish entries; Ellis Guilford School and The Oakwood Academy also both continue to enter pupils for French.
In Nottingham City's 2024/25 results, 387 pupils were entered for GCSE French. Of those, 67% (261 pupils) reached grade 4 or above and 58% (223 pupils) reached grade 5 or above, according to the Department for Education's Key Stage 4 performance release. These figures cover Nottingham City specifically — a separate local authority, DfE code 892, from the surrounding Nottinghamshire county — and are not a ranking of every Nottingham City school, since results vary from one school to the next.
Yes. Ofqual's guide for schools and colleges confirms that "as with the previous versions, these GCSEs are tiered with students sitting all of their assessments at either the higher or foundation tier", and this applies to the reformed GCSE French specifications taught from September 2024 in the same way it applied to the specifications they replaced. A student sits every paper — listening, speaking, reading and writing — at the tier they are entered for; tiers cannot be mixed across skills.
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