Update for Cambridge schools on June 2020 series - 20 April 2020

20 Apr 2020

This update contains guidance on a number of matters: additional syllabuses offered for the November 2020 series; Cambridge AICE Diploma extension; university recognitions; and additional support resources for schools.

As stated in our email to schools of 16 April, for schools working directly with Cambridge International, we can reassure you that the deadline for withdrawing entries and making entry amendments for the June 2020 series will be extended for all candidates until 1 May, in order to give our schools more time to make their entry decisions. We cannot accept withdrawals or entry amendments after this date. If you do withdraw entries or make entry amendments between 18 April and 1 May, you will need to email rather than use Cambridge International Direct. We will provide templates for you to record the information you need to send us. You can find more information about how to access these templates on the Help page of our website.

For schools working with the British Council, the extended deadline for withdrawing entries and making entry amendments (for all candidates) is 24 April rather than 1 May, and you will need to contact the British Council to do this.

We expect to send our next update to schools on 21 April 2020.

Additional syllabuses offered for November 2020 series

Further to our recent communications and requests from schools, we are pleased to confirm that we will provide a number of syllabuses in the November 2020 series that are normally only available in the June series. The list of syllabuses is provided below.

We understand that some students will have hoped to see more syllabuses here. However, we have reviewed this in depth, and considered which syllabuses have the most entries and what we can realistically achieve in the short time available.

We will confirm the dates when schools can enter candidates for the November 2020 series as soon as possible.

Additional syllabuses available for November 2020 series:

*Each location is allocated to one of six administrative zones. You must ensure the additional syllabuses listed above are available for your administrative zone by checking the final column of the table. Please check your administrative zone and key time

If your school is outside one of the admin zones, and you have a question about availability of the above syllabuses, please contact us.

Cambridge AICE Diploma

This update concerns students for whom the June 2020 exam series would normally be the last series for which they can sit exams and gain their AICE Diploma.

As you are aware, Cambridge International decided not to hold exams in the June 2020 series in any country. Therefore, we will allow an exceptional exemption to our usual 25-month time limit rule, whereby students must normally complete all elements of the Cambridge AICE Diploma within 25 months.

As such, if:

• the candidate was initially entered for the June 2020 series; and
• June 2020 is the final series for the candidate within the 25-month period, (i.e. they are also using syllabus grades from June 2018 towards the award of Cambridge AICE)

Candidates meeting both these criteria will be able to use grades obtained in Nov 2020 and/or in June 2021 towards a Cambridge AICE Diploma in which the first exams were taken in June 2018.

For Cambridge ICE, we apologise for the delay in providing guidance here. We are working on it and will provide clear guidance to schools next week.

Carrying forward marks for Cambridge International qualifications

This is still under consideration and we will provide more guidance on Tuesday 21 April 2020.

Additional support for schools

Watch our video to better understand the process for awarding grades for the June 2020 exams. In the video Rachel Bateman, our Senior Assessment Advisor, takes you through each step of the process answering key questions along the way. You can also access all the information we have shared so far about the process, including the infographic, letter for parents and families and the guidance document.

We are continuing to add to the Teaching and learning when school is closed section on our website. In the week commencing 20 April, we will publish more resources to support online teaching and some new webinars, including one with our team in China that explains how teachers there adapted to teaching during school closures.

We also have a number of posts on the Cambridge International blog with ideas and resources for teaching remotely, including encouraging learners to explore science at home.

University recognition

We continue to work collaboratively with universities around the world. We have communicated our process for awarding grades for the June 2020 series with them. All initial signs from the higher education sector globally are very positive and reassuring that grades from the June 2020 series will be accepted in the same manner as those achieved in previous series.

Universities have assured us that they will be as flexible as possible for all Cambridge applicants in their admission policies. We will regularly update our website as we receive formal statements from universities in the next few weeks.

Staying in touch

You can find all our advice on our website

If you have any questions you can view our frequently asked questions or contact us

We will update schools again on Tuesday 21 April. We wish everyone in the Cambridge International community well at this difficult time.