GCSE French 2026: AQA or Edexcel?

GCSE French is a modern foreign language qualification offered in England by exactly two exam boards: AQA, under entry code 8652, and Pearson Edexcel, under entry code 1FR1. Both teach the 2024-reformed specification, first taught from September 2024 with first examination in summer 2026. Eduqas does not currently offer a GCSE French at all, and the separate qualifications run by WJEC in Wales and CCEA in Northern Ireland are not regional copies of the same product.

Which Exam Boards Actually Offer GCSE French?

Two boards currently offer GCSE French in England. AQA's own specification names the qualification “AQA GCSE French 8652”, carries an Ofqual qualification accreditation number (QAN) of 610/2790/X, and states plainly it is “For teaching from September 2024 onwards” -- the current edition on AQA's own cover page is “Version 1.2 August 2026”. Pearson Edexcel's GCSE (9-1) in French specification gives its own subject code as 1FR1, its Ofqual QN as 610/2718/2, and states “First teaching from September 2024 | first certification from 2026” on its cover page, with the current edition dated “Specification – Issue 2 – May 2025”.

Eduqas does not offer a GCSE French. Eduqas's own live GCSE subject list, read directly from its qualifications index on 8 September 2026, runs alphabetically through every GCSE it publishes and has no French, German or Spanish entry at all -- its “F” section lists GCSE subjects such as Film Studies and Food Preparation and Nutrition, but no French. That absence is independently corroborated by BBC Bitesize's own board-choice tool for GCSE French, which names exactly three boards: “Choose your exam board AQA CCEA Edexcel” -- Eduqas is not one of them. Eduqas does currently offer A-level French, so the absence is specific to the GCSE, not to the language.

OCR does not offer it either, and has not since 2016. OCR's own subject-update notice, dated 16 May 2016, records the withdrawal of its GCSE, AS and A-level Modern Foreign Languages, naming the GCSE French entry as “J730 OCR Level 1/2 GCSE in French 500/4486/2 Summer 2017 N/A” -- a final assessment series of summer 2017 and no resit opportunity. OCR's own current, complete GCSE subject list (checked 8 September 2026) confirms this: its alphabetical “F” section lists only Food Preparation and Nutrition. Two control checks are worth recording, because OCR's site does not behave consistently from one part to another: an invented URL matching OCR's real GCSE naming pattern returned a generic “Qualification details” shell at HTTP 200 rather than a 404, while a differently-shaped invented URL under /specification/ on the same domain returned a genuine 404. OCR's soft-200 behaviour is therefore namespace-specific to its qualification-detail pages, not a universal feature of its site -- so a page that appears to “load” for a withdrawn OCR subject proves nothing on its own, but the 2016 withdrawal notice does.

WJEC's GCSE French is a Wales-only qualification and is not the same product as “Eduqas” despite shared branding and hosting. WJEC's own qualification page states that a new specification, “GCSE French - teaching from 2025”, has already replaced the legacy one, for which “Summer 2026 will be the final full assessment opportunity for this qualification. A resit opportunity for examinations will be available in January 2027”. The new specification's own outline document confirms it is “based on Qualifications Wales's Approval Criteria” -- Qualifications Wales, not Ofqual, regulates it -- and its cover states plainly: “Made for Wales. Ready for the world.” Nothing about this qualification, its timetable or its regulator applies to a school in England using AQA or Edexcel.

Northern Ireland runs a fourth, separate specification, and it predates the 2024 reform by seven years. CCEA's GCSE French (entry code 5650, QAN 603/1066/2) is described on CCEA's own subject page as the “Current Specification”, with “First teaching: from September 2017 First assessment: from Summer 2018 First award: from Summer 2019” -- an older, unreformed specification that sits entirely outside the DfE reform AQA and Edexcel now teach to. It examines the same four skills as AQA and Edexcel, each worth 25% (“There is an external examination for each of the specification's four assessment units, each worth 25% of the overall mark”), but it is regulated for Northern Ireland only and has no bearing on a school in England.

What's the Difference Between Foundation and Higher Tier?

On both current boards, GCSE French is tiered the same way, and this is one place AQA and Edexcel do not differ. AQA's specification states plainly: “GCSE French has a Foundation tier (grades 1–5) and a Higher tier (grades 4–9). Students must take all four question papers at the same tier. All question papers must be taken in the same series.” Pearson Edexcel's specification sets an identical structure: “For Foundation tier, grades 1–5 are available and for Higher tier, grades 4–9 are available, however if the mark achieved is a smaller number of marks below the 4/3 grade boundary, then a grade 3 may be awarded.” AQA's own specification confirms the same safety net on its board: “a student sitting the Higher tier who just fails to achieve grade 4 will be awarded an allowed grade 3.” That grade-3 safety net exists on both boards -- it is not a genuine point of difference between them, despite sometimes being presented as a distinctive feature of one board's marking.

How Are the Four Skills Examined, Paper by Paper?

Both boards examine the same four skills -- Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing -- each worth 25% of the qualification, but they number and order their papers differently, and a revision plan built around “Paper 2” on the wrong board targets the wrong skill. AQA runs Paper 1: Listening, Paper 2: Speaking, Paper 3: Reading, Paper 4: Writing. Pearson Edexcel examines the same four skills in a different order: Paper 1: Speaking in French, Paper 2: Listening and understanding in French, Paper 3: Reading and understanding in French, Paper 4: Writing in French.

The weighting is identical between boards even though the numbering is not. AQA's Paper 1 (Listening) is “40 marks (Foundation tier), 50 marks (Higher tier)” and “25% of GCSE”; Edexcel's Paper 2 (Listening and understanding) is “Higher tier: 60 minutes, including 5 minutes' reading time, 50 marks” and “25% of the qualification” -- the same mark total and weighting, on a paper with a different number. A revision timetable built around “Paper 1 is listening” will not transfer between boards.

What's New in the 2024-Reformed Specification?

Both AQA and Edexcel teach a specification reformed by DfE for first teaching in September 2024 and first examination in summer 2026, and the two changes that matter most for revision are a defined vocabulary list and a new phonics requirement. DfE's own GCSE French, German and Spanish subject content document states: “Students will be expected to know 1,200 lexical items for foundation tier, and a further 500 lexical items for higher tier” -- 1,700 words in total at Higher tier -- and that “At least 85% of the 1,200 and 1,700 words selected should be from the 2,000 most frequent words” in French. AQA's specification repeats the same figures almost word for word (“Students are expected to know 1,200 lexical items for Foundation tier, and a further 500 lexical items for Higher tier”), as does Edexcel's (“The vocabulary list comprises 1200 words to be used at both Foundation and Higher tier and an additional 500 words to be used at Higher tier only”) -- confirming this is a DfE-wide mandate both boards implement identically, not a board-specific choice.

The second change is a formal requirement to know sound-symbol correspondences (SSCs) -- essentially phonics for French -- which DfE's subject content document sets out in full in its annexes. Because both boards must build their assessments around the same DfE-mandated content, the SSC requirement sits underneath whichever board's papers a school actually sits, rather than varying between them.

Because this specification is mid-transition, the edition and date matter more than usual. AQA's current edition is “Version 1.2 August 2026” and Edexcel's is “Specification – Issue 2 – May 2025”, both for teaching from September 2024 with first examination summer 2026 -- seven years after CCEA's unreformed Northern Ireland specification began teaching in September 2017. A parent checking which specification their child is actually on should check the edition printed on the school's own set text, not just the board name.

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Did GCSE French Grading Get Easier?

Yes, but the change was to French and German only, and it moved them to Spanish -- not the other way round. Ofqual's own decision, published 5 November 2019, states: “We will now require the exam boards that offer these subjects to make adjustments to align grading standards in French and German with Spanish. Aligning outcomes in this way will make French and German less severely graded in statistical terms.” Spanish's own grading was not adjusted; it was the reference point French and German were brought in line with. Our GCSE French and German grading blog post covers the full 2026 results-day story -- board-level entry shifts and the actual grade boundaries -- in detail, and it is not repeated here.

This is a GCSE-only story. At A-level, Ofqual's answer is different: see our separate A-Level French page, which covers the three boards that offer it (AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas -- Eduqas does offer French at A-level even though not at GCSE) and their own grading history; that page's board list and paper structure are specific to A-level and are not restated here. The wider GCSE tuition hub lists the other GCSE subjects we cover.

Every figure on this page is drawn directly from AQA, Pearson Edexcel, Eduqas, WJEC, OCR, CCEA, DfE or Ofqual's own published specifications, subject-update notices or decisions, checked directly rather than taken from a secondary summary. Primary sources: AQA's GCSE French (8652) specification, Pearson Edexcel's GCSE French (1FR1) specification, Eduqas's own GCSE subject list, WJEC's GCSE French qualification page, OCR's MFL withdrawal notice, BBC Bitesize's GCSE French board-choice tool, CCEA's GCSE French (2017) subject page, DfE's GCSE French, German and Spanish subject content, and Ofqual's GCSE MFL grading decision. Checked 8 September 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions About GCSE French