SQA rebalancing assessment for practical qualifications
Thursday 20 March 2025
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has announced that it is removing exams from three of its National Qualifications ahead of session 2025-26.
At a visit today to Portobello High School in Edinburgh, SQA’s Interim Chief Executive John Booth, and Scotland’s Chief Examiner, Donna Stewart confirmed the awarding body would remove externally marked question papers from its National 5 Practical Cake Craft, National 5 Practical Metalworking and National 5 Practical Woodworking courses ahead of the new academic year.
These courses have a strong focus on developing practical skills and contain a small amount of theory-based content, which can be effectively assessed through other assessment approaches.
The change to assessment of these three National Qualifications follows a survey and focus groups with teachers and lecturers. The survey – which took place in 2024 – sought views on the assessment approaches for several practical courses.
The results from the consultation have also been published today.
Learners taking these subjects in the new academic year will be the first to undertake the new assessment approach.
For National 5 Practical Cake Craft, the existing course assignment will be expanded to include a section where learners explain the processes and techniques they’ve used to produce and finish their cake in the linked practical activity.
In National 5 Practical Metalworking, and National 5 Practical Woodworking a new case study will be added to the remaining practical activity, ensuring that learners’ skills and knowledge of the course content can be assessed thoroughly.
SQA will provide teachers and lecturers with Understanding Standards support for National 5 Practical Cake Craft, Practical Metalworking and Practical Woodworking to help them prepare for the changes to assessment.
Speaking ahead of a visit to Portobello High School, Donna Stewart, SQA’s Director of Qualifications Development and Scotland’s Chief Examiner, said: ‘Feedback from teachers and lecturers has been at the heart of our decision to remove question papers from National 5 Practical Cake Craft, National 5 Practical Metalworking and National 5 Practical Woodworking courses. Last year, we issued a short survey to teachers and lecturers at 361 schools and colleges across Scotland and conducted focus groups to ask practitioners’ views on whether to remove the question paper from these courses and other courses.
‘The responses we received – also published today – have given us the evidence base we needed to introduce new approaches to assessing knowledge and understanding in Practical Cake Craft, Practical Metalworking and Practical Woodworking. This decision will improve the validity of the course assessment, while being mindful of the workload associated with an increase in internal assessment.’
SQA Interim Chief Executive, John Booth said: 'This announcement adheres to SQA’s commitment in our Prospectus for Change which stated we would review the balance of approaches to assessment across National Qualifications. It also aligns with recommendations from the Scottish Government’s independent review of qualifications and assessment which recommended a reduction in the number of exams in S4-S6.
‘SQA – and subsequently Qualifications Scotland – will conduct a longer-term programme of work to review and reform National Courses and their assessments; including working towards extending the range of approved assessment methods used in National Qualifications, rebalancing assessment methods across National Courses, and exploring digital assessment opportunities.’
Councillor Joan Griffiths, Education, Children and Families Convener at City of Edinburgh Council, said: ‘It is important that learners are at the centre of any decision relating to course content and how attainment is assessed. I welcome the change to remove externally marked question papers for practical courses such as woodworking and cake craft. These courses by their very nature have a strong focus on developing hands-on skills and the focus should rightly be on ensuring that young people have learnt the appropriate techniques and processes, rather than performance in a written exam.’
SQA will update the course specifications for National 5 Practical Cake Craft, Practical Metalworking and Practical Woodworking to reflect the changes to assessment. SQA will also update the National 5 Practical Cake Craft coursework assessment task and the National 5 Practical Metalworking and Practical Woodworking specimen assessment tasks.
All updated documentation will be available on the SQA website by early April and will be valid from session 2025-26.