Your coursework

The type of coursework you will do depends on what subject you are studying.

These can be;

• A portfolio
• Practical activities
• Performances
• Assignments
• Projects

You must only submit your own work. Passing off other people’s work and ideas as your own is called ‘plagiarism’ and it’s cheating.

It’s not your own work if:

• all or some of it has been done, or worked on, by someone else
• it has been done by someone who has produced similar work in the past (such as an older student)
• you use work that your teacher has prepared as an example
• you’ve copied it from a source, such as a book, website or an essay bank, without trying to put it in your own words or referencing it
• you’ve copied text, images or any other material produced by an AI tool.

Unless you are working as part of a group (for example, on a group project), you must work alone to complete your coursework. If someone asks you for help, you should tell them to ask a teacher instead.

If you are finding any part of your course difficult, ask your teacher for advice. No other person can be involved, at any stage, in discussing or reviewing your coursework.

You may be able to use lots of different sources (including books, the internet and TV programmes) in your work, but it’s important that you reference them correctly.

When using sources, the general rules are;

• Use ‘quotation marks’ around any text that has come from other sources and clearly say where that text is from.
• Provide a reference for any diagrams or illustrations you’ve used from other sources.
• Create a bibliography (a list of sources you have used). This will go at the end of your work.

Your teacher will be able to help if you get stuck.

No. You might have heard about or used artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT or Google Bard. Many of these AI tools have age restrictions, which means they are not suitable for everyone. The text they produce can be incorrect or contain biased information. As the information is not reliable, you must not use or reference AI tools as sources for your work.

Find out more about our policy on AI in assessments.

If an investigation finds you’ve broken any rules, there may be a penalty, which could include the following.

• Your marks can be reduced, or you can be awarded zero marks.
• Your qualification for that subject can be cancelled.
• All of your qualifications for the entire year can be cancelled.

If you need extra support for coursework, performances or exams because of a disability or additional support need, your school can arrange this for you. We call this ‘assessment arrangements’. You don’t need to be formally diagnosed by a doctor to get this support.

You can find out more about what types of support you can get in our assessment arrangements guide for learners.