Withdrawal of Outline Proposal Forms

We want to make it easier for our schools to manage coursework internally. By discontinuing OPFs, you will no longer need to seek approval from Cambridge International on coursework tasks. This means that teachers and learners can agree on tasks at a point in the course that is convenient for them, without having to adhere to Cambridge International timeframes or deadlines.

Using this support and working with your learners to develop their tasks can be an opportunity for you to develop professionally, as you engage more fully with the requirements of the task.

You should continue to submit OPF forms up until the November 2021 exam series, which will be the final series where OPFs are used. The deadline for submitting OPFs for the November 2021 series is 30 April 2021. From 2022 series onwards, you will no longer submit the forms to Cambridge International, but manage the process of setting tasks yourself.

There is a wide range of resources to help you set tasks on the relevant syllabus page of the School Support Hub, including information to help you understand what makes an effective task for the component.

You can find a range of resources on our School Support Hub for all components:

• Our Coursework Handbooks include information on how to determine and develop a task title and examples of effective and less effective approaches.
• Teacher and Learner Guides offer comprehensive support for all components in the syllabus, setting out the process teachers and learners should complete to set and develop their tasks in a structured way.
• Our training for syllabuses will also be covering the process of task setting, with reference to effective and less effective approaches. See more on the training that we offer.

For Cambridge International AS & A Level Global Perspectives (9239) and Cambridge International Project Qualification (9980) from April 2021, revised support material will be available to guide you through the task-setting process. This is because of the wide topic areas involved in the task-setting process for both of these subjects.

As well as our coursework training handbooks, we cover task setting in training for relevant syllabuses. More information on the training we offer is on our training web pages.

In the first instance, please refer to the Coursework Handbook for the syllabus, available on the School Support Hub. If you need more help, please contact us.

We provide comprehensive support for task setting to make sure that teachers and learners understand what is needed for an effective task title and that it allows the learner to meet the assessment criteria for the component.

Use these materials to understand what makes an effective task title and the areas that the task should cover. Working with your learners to develop their task titles based on this support can provide more comprehensive guidance to learners than was available from a single response from an external Cambridge Advisor.

We believe that, when class teachers supervise task setting, learners will be prepared for what they experience in higher education, developing their proposal for an assignment with their tutor or supervisor who knows their work best.