Celebrating another successful year with OxfordAQA

In 2023, we launched six new qualifications to solidify our commitment to equipping students with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in higher education, the workplace and the wider world. This year, we’ve outdone that with seven new specifications – including the first and only International GCSE for Media Studies. These new qualifications are: 

• International GCSE Accounting 
• International GCSE Islamiat 
• International GCSE Media Studies  
• International GCSE Pakistan Studies 
• International GCSE Urdu 
• International AS/A-level Accounting 
• International AS/A-level Computer Science  

Our growth across the world has meant more students than ever before have the chance to benefit from our unique approach to assessment design. Alongside recruiting lots of new schools in our well-established countries, we’re delighted to have our first approved schools in many countries, including Cambodia, Spain and Pakistan.  

These successes are in part down to the wonderful partnerships we have established in the past year. In particular, the launch of our affiliation with Mentari Assessment in Indonesia has enabled hundreds of teachers to access new training, which has been vital in ensuring the successful implementation of OxfordAQA at many schools. 

Designed especially for international schools, this educational journey – spanning from Early Years to OxfordAQA’s International AS/A-levels – ignites a joy of learning and promotes a culture of wellbeing that will prove essential for connecting the learners of today with a brighter future. 

These students excelled in their subject categories during the May/June 2024 exam series. A record number of students, from 98 schools and 19 countries, received awards for being the top achievers in their country, region or the world. The entire team at OxfordAQA extends our warmest congratulations to these exceptional individuals; we encourage you to continue to share your success stories with us. 

The achievements of these students, however, would not be possible without the efforts of their fantastic teachers. Teaching can be a challenging profession and that’s why we ensure that our teaching support offer is robust and encourages both professional development and a focus on wellbeing. Over the last 12 months, OxfordAQA has: 

• hosted over 94 hours of webinars 
• ran 14 Senior Associate Clinics across the world 
• held 9 OxfordAQA and Oxford International Programme conferences 
• attended or organised 38 other face-to-face events 

Wellbeing is a key strand of the Oxford International Programme and flows throughout it. As part of its launch, Jamie Kirkaldy, Head of Teaching and Learning Support, hosted a webinar detailing his top tips for putting teacher wellbeing at the heart of positive teaching. You can read Jamie’s thoughts and top tips on our blog. 

The speakers at our conferences in Egypt, Dubai, Thailand and China discussed in-depth the impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies in education. Teachers can use technology to their advantage, for example to cultivate key 21st-century skills or to give an edge to their leadership in education. Our commitment to guiding and supporting wider discussions on the issues that matter will continue to drive us in 2025. 

Looking forward to next year, we already have lots of support in place for teachers to help them give their students the best chance of success. In January, we’ll be holding OxfordAQA conferences across three cities in Pakistan. January also marks the start of our new Professional Development course, ‘Embedding critical thinking into classroom teaching’, which offers teachers practical insights into nurturing future-ready skills into all areas of teaching – from lesson planning to assessment feedback. After that, our annual support cycle will start up again with the beginning of our Prepare to Teach series in February – and there is much more to come. 

For now, though, I’d like to thank all the teachers, staff and students at our OxfordAQA schools for your hard work this year. It’s been an inspiration to see how much effort you have put in, and a pleasure to meet some of you on my visits across the world. I hope to engage with even more of you next year.