GCSE IN BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE (BSL)

The start of the road of developing a secondary education qualification.

Signature was inspired to develop a BSL Qualification for secondary education qualification

The working group was made up of respected professionals in education and Deaf Communication along with other awarding bodies who have experience in creating qualifications for secondary education.

Following an overwhelming response from schools, across the country who were keen to be involved, we chose 6 to pilot our qualification.

NDCS's young advisory board 'YAB' launches the campaign 'Right to Sign' to convince the government to introduce a GCSE in BSL

Nick Gibbs, Minister of School Standards at the Department for Education rejects a BSL GCSE as it doesn't fit the current frame work for Modern Foreign Languages

In October, Florence from NDCS 's young advisory board meets with Civil Servants at the DfE to explain why Deaf, and hearing young people need a GCSE

Deaf young person, Daniel Jillings and his Mum, Ann meet with the ministry of School Standards, Nick Gibbs to discuss the campaign for a BSL GCSE.

T.V and Media Presenter, Wayne Barrow launches a successful Parliament Petition to urge the Government to make BSL part of the National Curriculum.

Despite the rejection in Parliament and with help from Wayne Barrow, NDCS and The Silent Child team, there was a lot of conversations surrounding a BSL GCSE happening in schools.

In June Daniel began a crowdfunding campaign to cover the legal costs of challenging the government in their delay of progressing a BSL GCSE.

Signature meet with Ofqual and the Department for Education (DfE) to discuss recent events around the development of a GCSE in BSL. We were pleased to announce that we would be preparing a proposal for the development of a GCSE. 

The Department for Education confirm that they are working with subject experts to develop content for the BSL GCSE. They are aiming to introduce the GCSE as soon as possible.

The Development of the GCSE has been delayed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. However, the Minister for Schools and Childhood, Kelly Tolhurst MP, has confirmed that work on the GCSE is continuing. Subject content is now being drafted, and there will be a public consultation about this in the Autumn of 2022. 

The purpose of the consultation is to gain feedback on the proposed subject content requirements that will form the basis of the new GCSE in BSL.

In December, the Government published the consultation response. There was strong overall support for a new GCSE in BSL, with views being expressed about the positive outcomes that would occur as a result of more people being able to use BSL in the population. The department received 717 responses to the public consultation.

In October 2024 Qualification Wales have announced that they have taken the difficult decision to suspend the development of a made-for-Wales GCSE in British Sign Language in Wales, stating significant practical challenge.

Ofqual provided reassurance about its ongoing work to make sure that the assessment methodology will be appropriate for GCSE BSL qualifications based on DfE’s published subject content.

On 30th May 2025, Ofqual launched their second consultation on the detailed rules that an exam board would need to follow when designing a GCSE qualification in BSL.