The OCR practical assessment group (PAG) approach to the practical endorsement allows you to choose whatever practical activities you wish, provided all the necessary skills and techniques are covered over the two years of A Level study.
All four sciences follow the same model, which is identical for our A and B suites, meaning that the style of practical isn’t linked to the specification. Twelve practical activity groups (PAGs) are defined and identified throughout the specification. We provide three example practical activities within each of the twelve PAGs, including teacher/technician notes and student sheet. These have been chosen to support your teaching and include a mix of familiar practicals and new activities to engage student learning.
In these six short videos our subject advisors explain the key aspects of the OCR PAG approach to the practical endorsement. The seventh video was produced by the cross-board working group and summarises the experience of the teachers and students who trialled the new approach. Click the playlist menu button in the top left of the video screen below to navigate through the available videos.
New to OCR
If you are starting to deliver one of the OCR science suite AS and A Levels you should notify us by email at science@ocr.org.uk so that a monitoring visit can be scheduled during the teaching of the first group. If you have switched to OCR from another awarding organisation then you should notify the visiting monitor from the that awarding organisation when they make contact. Their monitor will then pass the information to OCR to allow us to arrange for a monitor from OCR to carry out the monitoring visit.