A note from Lindsay Foster, Executive Director at Signature
On the 13th November 2025, Ofqual released their feedback following the second consultation for the GCSE in British Sign Language. At that point, it was for the GCSE approved awarding bodies to decide if they were going to develop the BSL GCSE.
Since the release of the consultation, both AQA and Pearson have shared with us that they have decided against progressing with the development of a BSL GCSE currently, which is incredibly disappointing.
There is still a couple of awarding bodies who are approved by Ofqual to offer GCSEs, and we are looking to clarify their position, as soon as possible, now the consultation process has concluded.
At the current time, Signature are only approved to offer vocational qualifications by Ofqual, this means that, presently, we can’t offer the BSL GCSE.
The Signature Board of Trustees have approved plans for us to begin carrying out a feasibility study to understand if and how we could gain approval to offer the BSL GCSE. This is an incredibly complicated, expensive and challenging piece of work which will take time to complete.
We appreciate the continued support of our sector partners, who I know share our frustrations. We will continue to do all we can to make a British Sign Language GCSE happen. I now ask for your patience and support, while we work through this process, and as soon as we have a decision and can provide further clarity we will.
I know you will have many questions, at this moment we don’t have the answers.
Signature are committed to doing whatever we can to get British Sign Language into secondary schools, and this commitment has not changed.
Thank you for your continued support.
Lindsay.