9SCO-20P1 CPAC Training

Event Code: 9SCO-20P1/01

Event Title: Managing and assessing the Science Practical Endorsement for A level Sciences
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Slide content Script
1 Title slide before start
2 Introduction to event Hello. Thank for taking this opportunity to look at the latest training for
managing and assessing the award of the Practical Endorsement for your
students. The duration of this course is one hour and will count as 1 hours
CPD.

3 – Introduction to the Practical Endorsement

The Practical Endorsement, or PE, is the assessment of *The Practical Endorsement is the assessment of practical skills and is a
practical skills and is a compulsory requirement of all compulsory requirement.
the A level sciences

The outcome is reported as a pass
The PE is the assessment of the practical competence
of the individual student as laid out in Appendix 5 of
the specification and covers skills and the apparatus
and techniques
Individual student competence is assessed by
teachers using the Common Practical Assessment
Criteria or CPAC.
*The outcome is either reported as a Pass or Not Classified and it appears
on the individual student’s exam certificate, but does not affect the overall
subject grade
*The practical curriculum is laid out in Appendix 5 of the specification.
Appendix 5a deals with the indirect assessment of practical skills, in other
words the way the written question papers will assess practical skills.
Appendix B deals with the direct assessment of practical skills which is
carried out by the teacher using CPAC during practical activities.
Appendix C details the apparatus and techniques that candidates must use
and demonstrate their competence in doing so. The apparatus and

4 – Common Practical Assessment Criteria
The five groups of statements
5 – Criterion 1 – Follows written procedures
a) Correctly follows instructions to carry out the
experimental techniques or procedures.
Use of Working Towards
techniques for each subject and the CPAC are the same for all exam
boards
*CPAC assessment can be carried out using any practical work not just the
Core Practicals but in doing all of the Core Practicals a student will satisfy
the requirements of Appendix 5c.
The CPAC are the criteria that teachers use when assessing student
competence. Their assessments are based on practical work done by
students, and teachers should be looking for evidence that each individual
student is working competently.
There are eleven CPAC statements in five groups and we shall look at what
each statement means, where you should look for evidence and what a
pass looks like. Everything we say here is the same for all three Science
subjects.
If you carry out 16 core practicals and use each practical to assess 3
criterion statements then you will have 48 assessment opportunities for
each student. So you will be able to assess each of the eleven CPAC
statements four times and each student will have four chances to
demonstrate their competence. Should you need more opportunities you
can of course assess 4 or 5 CPAC statements and on later practicals this
gives you a chance to assess your weaker practical students more
frequently.
There is only one statement in the first group, and it is a basic one, but we
cover quite a few conditions that apply to all the criteria.
A student should be able to work successfully without intervention, that
really is the key to competence: can they do it on their own?
 This can be assessed on many occasions but when you are satisfied they
What do we mean by competence? are routinely and consistently competent, then the idea is that the student
will continue to be competent at following instructions and you probably
will not be assessing them every time!

The evidence for this statement is entirely visual. You will be looking to see
if they can set up the apparatus and use it to take readings. As the course
develops so should a student’s skills and you should assess CPAC 1a with
some of the advanced apparatus they will use in the second year of the
course.

*You might consider the statements 1a, 2a, and 4a form a hierarchy of
demand, so you need not expect too much in terms of experimental ability
for 1a. You will need to decide, as a matter of policy, what your
expectation is when you assess competence. Are you expecting student
competence to be the standard they should attain by the end of the two-
year course; or are you accepting competence to be at the standard for
their current stage in the course? This is why we have suggested the use of
“Working Towards” when you assess students. This could mean that
students are not up to the standard you expect at this stage; or because
the demand of the activity is not as high as you will be expecting by the
end of the course. Using both approaches together may lead to confusion
in the mind of a student – so try to be consistent in how competent you
expect students to be throughout the course and they will probably
achieve more.

*Similarly you must expect students to demonstrate competence and not

mastery, so while they might not get everything as perfect as it might be, if
they correct their mistakes and work without intervention, they can be
deemed competent.

6 – Criterion 2
Applies investigative approaches and methods
when using instruments and equipment
2(a) Correctly uses appropriate instrumentation,
apparatus and materials (including ICT) to carry
out investigative activities, experimental
techniques and procedures with minimal
assistance or prompting.
Evidence
Competence
When you have seen enough to consider that they are likely to be
competent at this sort of task next time then you can regard them as
routinely and consistently competent although you might want to have at
least one look at CPAC 1 in Y13, just to make sure they can follow more
complex instructions.
We should note straight away that students are expected to undertake
investigative work. Centres should note that simply following the Pearson
lab books or worksheets for every practical will not give opportunities for
students to work independently, as they will always be following written
instructions.
An investigative approach might be considered as one in which a student
is set a task in which some choice is needed and in which the student
decides how they will carry out the work. This need only apply to elements
of the work rather than a complete practical, but the choices should place
some demand on students’ competence in carrying out practical work. So
it is likely they will be planning what apparatus they need and how they
might go about using that apparatus, for all or some of a practical. The
scope can expand during the course as students develop their competence
and indeed confidence. Not every practical should be an investigation but
there should be some investigative work.
We should also note that students are expected to use ICT in their work
and we find this varies between subjects and between centres.
*So to CPAC 2a. We have noted the hierarchy of demand in 1a, 2a and 4a
and if 1a is setting up the apparatus and obtaining readings then CPAC 2a
is about doing so properly. Note here that assistance or prompting is

7 - Criterion 2
Applies investigative approaches and methods
when using instruments and equipment
2(b) Carries out techniques or procedures
methodically, in sequence and in combination,
identifying practical issues and making
adjustments when necessary.
allowed but it should be minimal and not amount to intervention. Often a
question to a student in terms of ‘Have you thought about so and so?’ or
‘You are not using such and such, I was wondering why’, which encourages
the student to have another think, is fine here.
You should ensure that your scheme of work allows them to experience a
wide range of instrumentation in assessing CPAC 2a.
*The evidence for CPAC 2a will be visual, what you see them doing when
working scientifically. Teachers will have little difficulty in deciding
whether their students are competent in correctly using apparatus or not.
It should be borne in mind that it is competence and not mastery that is
expected. You might ask them a question about a particular technique to
satisfy yourself that they understand the instructions as well as being able
to follow them for 1a.
*A competent student is likely to appear confident when working with
apparatus but this is a relative term and should be used with great care.
You might decide that matters such as zero error or parallax in reading a
scale are important here, or you might think they are more appropriate in
CPAC 4a. Again so long as you are consistent it probably doesn’t matter
too much but such considerations should feature somewhere.
In deciding how to assess CPAC 2b it might be helpful to consider that all
four aspects of CPAC 2 can form another sort of hierarchy. We have had
students setting up apparatus and getting readings for 1a and we have had
them doing so correctly for 2a. You should take care that you are not
assessing the same thing for 2a in some practicals and for 2b in others. So
2b is a development and the key is probably the identification of practical
issues and how to make the necessary adjustments – no mention of
assistance here. This does mean that only a few experiments are suitable
Evidence
Competence
8 - Criterion 2
Applies investigative approaches and methods
when using instruments and equipment
2(c) Identifies and controls significant
quantitative variables where applicable, and
plans approaches to take account of
variables that cannot readily be controlled.
Assessment
Evidence and competence
for assessing 2b and it is probably a good idea to allocate the assessment
of CPAC 2b at an early stage of planning so that you get appropriate
practicals.
*The issue should be how to get a good reading, not how to clear up a
mistake. Adjusting the frequency for the resonance of a string in physics is
an example. Again the evidence will be visual and teachers will observe
their students making the adjustments. This is likely to be flagged up in the
Scheme of Work.
*A pass is where the student does more than switch a piece of apparatus
from one reading to the next or decides to take readings in a particular
order to improve coverage. It does not mean that the table of results is in
numerical order. If a student wishes to take further readings, as
interpolations, because they have reviewed their table and there are gaps
in the dependent variable, then adding these at the bottom of a table is
not a 2b fail.
Control variables vary between subjects, there are lots in biology and very
few in physics with chemistry in between. So once again, like 2b, it is
important to decide which practicals you will use to assess 2c and allocate
them early in the planning process.
There are two aspects to be assessed and that can be done separately in
that the control variables must be identified and then they must be
controlled in practice. The second will be assessed by observation and the
identification can most easily be seen if the student is writing a plan –
which is the key to the principle of investigation we mentioned in 2a.
*If students are assessed from a plan they wrote, care should be taken
that it is not simply plagiarized. This is difficult – so it might be more

9 - Criterion 2 Applies investigative approaches and
methods when using instruments and equipment
2(d) Selects appropriate equipment and
measurement strategies in order to
ensure suitably accurate results.
Evidence
Competence
10 - Criterion 3 -
Safely uses a range of practical equipment and
materials
secure to ask them to write a plan for a practical under controlled
conditions but without time restraint… they might even have reference
sources to hand, but perhaps not the internet.
*The evidence for 2c will be from their written plan, but teachers will want
to check the student then carries out the plan and successfully controls
the variables, which is also a criterion for success in this statement.
Once again this is a double headed criterion in the selection of both
instruments and measurement strategies. It is possible that these can be
assessed whilst the student is working in terms of the decisions they might
make whilst actually gathering data.
*However your evidence is likely to be better if your student has written a
plan and more secure if the student has produced their plan without
access to the internet. The plan can be adapted during the work but this is
not a necessary aspect.
For an A level student, the ability to make plans is a crucial skill that will be
tested in the written papers, so it is perhaps a good idea to practice.
*The evidence is going to be written for this statement and the criteria for
success is that the investigation produces valuable data capable of being
used in the solution of a problem or achievement of the task set.
*The success is entirely a matter for the teacher’s professional judgement.
Selecting an appropriate core practical might be tricky and it is probably
better if this is in Y13 but it should, obviously, present the student with
realistic choices.
There are two statements in the safety criterion. In order to differentiate
between the two, we think that 3a is best addressed by students writing a
 3(a) Identifies hazards and assesses risks associated
with these hazards, making safety adjustments as
necessary, when carrying out experimental
techniques and procedures in the lab or field.
Competence
Evidence
11 - Criterion 3 -
Safely uses a range of practical equipment and
materials
3(b) Uses appropriate safety equipment and
approaches to minimise risks with minimal
prompting.
Evidence
Competence
risk assessment. These can be produced in a variety of ways, using
appropriate resources or not.
*We suggest that a pass is when the student successfully identifies all the
important hazards, assesses the attendant risks and provides suitable
safety precautions specific to the work. Clearly success in this is once again
entirely the teacher’s professional judgement. It is important that all
reasonable risks associated with the apparatus and methods used are
identified - and we simply ignore standard laboratory safety rules such as
tying back loose hair and stowing bags out of harm’s way as these always
apply.
*Once again it is important that students can do this unprompted,
although standard safety data should be available and, as part of a plan,
this is a good way to assess with security. Clearly the evidence for 3a is
written. It is perfect acceptable for a hazard to present a low risk and
require no precautions, and students should give scientific reasons for why
the risk is low.
CPAC 3b is about safety in carrying out the appropriate precautions
concerned with both apparatus and method. Following a risk assessment,
either their own or a standard one produced by the centre or by an
appropriate authority such as CLEAPSS, is entirely appropriate.
*The evidence is visual in that the teacher will observe the student
working safely and any prompting should perhaps be very minimal.
*Once again, a pass in this statement is entirely a matter for the teacher’s
professional judgement.
 12 - Criterion 4 - Makes and records observations
4(a)Makes accurate observations relevant to the
experimental or investigative procedure.
Evidence
Competence
13 - Criterion 4 - Makes and records observations
4(b) Obtains accurate, precise and sufficient data
for experimental and investigative procedures and
records this methodically using appropriate units
and conventions.
Competence
Evidence
CPAC 4 has two statements which divide up into making observations and
recording them.
*You will recall that 1a, 2a and 4a form something of a hierarchy of
competence at getting things done in the lab and, again, it is important
that what was assessed for 2a is not what you are assessing for 4a. We
mentioned that zero error and parallax might be suitable for 2a but you
might take the view that 4a is more appropriate, being a higher demand. It
is probably better to assess 4a using an experiment that has some high
demand for work in the lab.
*The evidence is going to be visual as you, by now, expect students to be
able to handle all sorts of apparatus with the competence required to get
good data.
*The key here is accuracy – the accuracy of the readings - this might be
judged by looking at the data obtained or in the way the student handles
the apparatus. This will vary from subject to subject and centre to centre.
The key aspect of CPAC 4b is the contemporaneous recording of their
readings. This means the students must draw up a table for their readings
with headings containing quantity and units. The table should not contain
readings until they start, otherwise they have to guess the values and
although they might well know some values it is not important to enter
any readings until they are made. The table must be drawn up before the
student starts to take readings.
*We saw ‘methodical’ in 2b and it is here again. It does not mean that the
readings have to be in rank order, they should be written down as they are
taken and this might mean they look as though they are in a funny order
but the really important thing is that the table is constructed before work
 starts, showing the student has thought about what they will be doing and
the readings are recorded as they are made, which is good practice and
avoids arithmetical errors. We looked for accuracy in 4a but you should
assess here the sufficiency of the data – can it be used to plot a graph?

*The evidence is written, although the teacher will probably look to see
that each student is recording contemporaneously as they circulate
around the lab. We expect each student to write down the readings rather
than having one to do the practical and the other to act as secretary.

A pass is a clear, but not necessarily neat, contemporaneous record of the

work and sufficient readings to plot a graph are expected - bearing in mind
it might not be a straight line.

Note that actually plotting a graph is not a CPAC skill, although students
might do it using ICT in order to access CPAC 5a.
14 - Criterion 5 - Researches, references and reports There are three strands to follow with CPAC 5a and it is unlikely that any
5(a) Uses appropriate software and/or tools to one practical will offer opportunity to assess all three. Therefore, centres
process data, carry out research and report will need to build up a record of which strands have been assessed. You
findings. might use the cell notes facility to note ‘a’ ‘b’ or ‘c’. Alternatively your pen
portraits will make this very obvious, but more of them later.
Competence
*For processing data, a calculator is sufficient but a spreadsheet is also
Evidence perfectly acceptable, especially since plotting a graph using Excel is a very
good way to use software to report findings. Note that the graph should
be looked at in the same way as they are marked in exam papers, with due
regard for the spread of the plots across the page and quantity and unit on
both axes. Carrying out research might be linked to writing a plan which
also covers 2c, 2d and 3a. This aspect should be more than plagiarizing a
 plan and might mean checking numerical results against accepted values
or considering variations in plans or local variations in data.

*The evidence is written and there is no defined standard required other

15 - Criterion 5 - Researches, references and reports
5(b) Sources of information are cited demonstrating
that research has taken place, supporting planning
and conclusions.
Competence
Evidence
than the common sense one which all teachers bring to assessing student
work. Was the data processed successfully, was the graph presented
properly and was the research useful in their work?
Whereas we are expecting students to use ICT in 5a here we expect
students to carry out research in supporting both planning and conclusions
and that their sources are cited properly.
*This requires the URL of the website visited and the date of the visit. A
textbook might well be used for example to support planning, in which
case the title and edition, author or authors and page number should be
cited, along with figure numbers or paragraph details if this is likely to be
unclear. The key aspect is that the teacher should be able to find the
source of the student’s information with very little difficulty.

*The evidence is written and if students carry out some research when
planning then 5b can be seen as part of a plan.

*CPAC 5a nad 5b can often be assessed together and, as we have seen, iot
does cover a wider range of activity.

16 - Pen portraits Centres are expected to standardize the assessments made by their
teachers in a subject, and pen portraits provide the opportunity for this as
What are they well as ensuring that standards don’t change gradually over time.
Additionally, some of the CPACs have multiple strands and pen portraits
How are they used will ensure that you cover all of these sufficiently during the two-year
course.
Why are they useful
*Monitors have seen that Pen Portraits work well when they consist of
three simple ‘can do’ statements. As the assessing teacher you can then
look for these three aspects and tick or cross – or WT accordingly. These
statements should be very short, such as ‘Can measure diameter’ for CPAC
1a and ‘Measures diameter having checked for zero error’ for CPAC 2a – or
4a as discussed earlier. CPAC assessment is about competence and there is
no upper limit, so the pen portraits should describe the minimum required
for a pass ie they describe the boundary between a pass and working
towards. It is not so helpful to describe a student doing it wrongly - they all
have different ways of doing this, but the statements should describe what
you expect a student to be doing to pass and this will be decided by the
teacher using their professional judgement.

*Using pen portraits will standardize your assessments but they can also
be used to arrive at a common standard. If all the teachers meet to draw
up some pen portraits you can start by asking them to write down three
simple statements for a particular CPAC statement for a particular
practical, say CPAC 1a for core practical 3. The essence is to do this quickly
and to keep the statements short.

*So the pen portrait is specific to one CPAC statement for one practical in
your particular centre with the equipment you use. If you have 3 teachers
you start with 9 statements, the task is to agree three and you regress
towards the norm in this standardization process.

Schools ask if Pen Portraits can be shared with students, so that they know
what they are being assessed on. We would not recommend sharing the
pen portraits for the non-visual CPACs, for example writing a Risk
Assessment for CPAC 3a. If the student has your pen portrait they know
 what you are expecting to see and that is what they will write. It will not
be a test of their competence in safety. It is easier to share the pen
portraits for the visually assessed CPACs, if they are worded quite
generally eg “make correct use of the thermometer”. In this case, you
would probably standardize your colleagues by detailing what the student
should do – but, again, don’t share this with students as they will simply
do as prompted by the pen portrait!

Remember that you can always review and change Pen Portraits and the
more specific they are, the more useful they will become. So “takes at
least 6 readings” rather than “takes a suitable number of readings”; or
“readings range between 0.5 m and 1.5m” rather than “over a suitable
range”.

It will take a while to set up pen portraits but they will help you to ensure
that your planning gives an even coverage of all aspects of the criteria and
the more students you have the happier you can be that they are all being
assessed in the same way.

17 - The monitoring visit This material was prepared during the second year of the third cycle so
nearly all science departments should have received a monitoring visit.
Ofqual stipulate that every centre must have a visit during each two-year
Planning and records cycle.

Student work The purpose of the visit is for the monitor to gather evidence that CPAC
assessment is being carried out as laid down by Ofqual. In essence this
Live assessments means following the Pearson guidelines as shown in the materials
available online.
Discussion
Report *The evidence the monitor looks for consists of three aspects and the visit
concludes with a discussion with the Lead Teacher. The visit lasts between
three and four hours and should cause minimal disruption to the centre.

The first aspect is the centre’s planning and their records. This is usually
the scheme of work and the spreadsheet on which you keep your
students’ records. These should show how you plan to deliver the Practical
Endorsement by doing the core practicals and how well your students are
progressing.

*The second aspect is looking at examples of students’ work. Often the

monitor will have selected work to look at from the spreadsheet which
they will ask you to send them ahead of the visit. We find this makes the
visit quicker and more effective. You should have all the student work
available for the visit, from both Year 12 and 13. Student work is not
expected to be a set of lab reports. The centre might wish students to
produce a formal write-up for some of the practicals but the monitor
wants to see the contemporaneous records kept by the student during
their time in the laboratory. These are likely to be somewhat untidy but
that doesn’t matter. They will probably want to see the graphs relating to
the results which might be on paper or produced digitally. They will then
look to see that the student’s work reflects the record in the spreadsheet,
and it is a great help if the work has been annotated. Annotation need
only be a tick with the criterion number beside is enough, so ‘tick 4b’ for
example. This annotation will also help standardisation of assessments by
the lead teacher as they will be easily able to see the assessments of their
colleagues.

*The third aspect is for the monitor to see some CPAC assessment being
carried out in a laboratory. The monitor might wish to talk to students on

18 - Support for delivery
[Insert three links one for each subject website]
an entirely informal basis and they will talk to the teacher as well,
particularly if this is not the lead teacher. They will do this during the
lesson by circulating with the teacher. This gives the monitor an
opportunity to see the visual assessments being made and to discuss with
a teacher how these are done more widely.
*The visit ends with a discussion with the Lead Teacher at which the
monitor might ask about some aspects that have not been immediately
obvious and it is a chance for the lead teacher to ask any questions that
they might have. The discussion might centre on examples of the students’
work and will be entirely informal.
*The monitor writes a report which is passed to the Lead Monitor and
should be received by the centre within two weeks of the visit. This says
what the monitor saw and whether they agree with the judgements made
by the centre in using CPAC to assess their students’ competence. There is
often some advice to help centres progress.
If the monitor thinks the centre is not getting assessment quite right , the
subject Lead monitor will conduct a second visit. This will be exactly the
same format as the first and the senior monitor will wish to see how the
centre has progressed since the first report. Should the centre disagree
with the monitor there is an appeals procedure.
There is a special section on each subject website containing all the
support for CPAC delivery. The subject tracking spreadsheet is available
and although you might prefer to keep your records in another format we
have found that most centres have little difficulty using the spreadsheet
and it does offer the ability to look at data for the whole cohort.
 There is a second edition of the Guide for Lead Teachers which sets out
the whole process in greater detail than there was time for in this
recording. If you have any questions at the end, this document should be
your first port of call. Further questions can be pursued through our Ask
the Expert service, also available from the subject website.

A recent additional resource is a list of videos of the core practicals. This

playlist is available from the CPAC section of the website and the videos
are available from sources such as Vimeo and YouTube. The videos contain
details of apparatus and methods used and usually have sample data, in
addition to that shown on the worksheets.

You can find these materials and much more by visiting the Pearson
Qualifications website, selecting A levels and then your subject. When you
arrive at the subject site you should click on ‘Teaching and Learning
materials’ which is under ‘Course Materials’. You should look for the ‘CPAC
guidance and tracking’ tab to access all the materials discussed here and
many more. The link show onscreen should take you there.
There is now a Q & A session which will enable you to
consolidate all we have covered here and it might
supply the answer to some of your questions.

I suggest you pause the recording to read the

questions and think about them, and then re-start it
when you have your answers. Each slide will have
some comments.