What is IGCSE?

Years 10 and 11

The International General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations have been developed to provide a wide-ranging, rigorous evaluation of students’ abilities. Increasingly, schools in the U.K. are moving over to the IGCSEs as they are perceived to be more demanding and balanced than the GCSEs generally taken there and they are not subject to input from the U.K. Education Ministry, meaning that they can be written and administered without bias or pressure from outside the examination board.

IGCSE grades are accepted worldwide as accurate indicators of a student’s ability within his or her chosen subjects.

The IGCSE approach to teaching is to introduce the students to a variety of subjects and encourage them to make connections between them. IGCSE focuses on developing the student’s understanding, skill, and knowledge in the following areas:

• Subject content
• The application of knowledge and understanding to new as well as unfamiliar situations
• Intellectual enquiry
• The flexibility and responsiveness to change
• Working and communicating in English
• Influencing outcomes
• Cultural awareness

Pearson Edexcel International GCSEs are awarded using the new nine-point grading scale (9–1), introduced by the UK government to raise standards and recognise top-performing students. 

To get to know more about IGCSE grading, please click the link below:

Each IGCSE course is unique and has its own course requirements and examination procedures. Many require the submission of coursework, in the form of independent work or as a controlled assessment. Students cannot be presented for the final examination if the course work or controlled assessment has not been completed in the set time.

Examinations will take place at the end of year 11. We are required to follow the UK examination timetable, which may result in final exams on Fridays and during religious celebrations. Results will be published in August.

SUBJECTS

All Year 10 students will take all the compulsory subjects and must select one option from each block. To align with the UK curriculum requirement, 1 Science should be selected from any of the 3 blocks. – Muslim students will continue Islamic Studies based on Ministry of Education Curriculum. 

Further to the Ministry of Education requirement those holding Arabic passport are required to take Arabic as a first language as a subject based on Ministry of Education Curriculum until the end of Yr. 12. 

Islamic Studies, Moral Education and UAE Social Studies are not IGCSE subjects and are required by the Ministry of Education here in UAE. 

Physical Education is compulsory subject to promote wellbeing. Computing is an IGCSE subject compulsory for all students to develop digital citizenship. Religious Studies is an IGCSE subject compulsory for Catholics while Global Citizenship and IGCSE subject as well is compulsory for non-Muslim and non-Catholic.