AQA A level Dance Past Papers

We’ve worked with dance teachers and higher education providers to create a qualification that will appeal to students of all abilities, and equip them with a wide range of skills and knowledge.

Our AS and A-level Dance specifications reflect both historical and current dance practices, making them more relevant, and inspiring a lifelong passion and appreciation for dance. They also offer clear, logical progression from GCSE.

Both AS and A-level provide strong standalone qualifications that are designed to be co-teachable. This gives you and your students valuable choice.

Why choose AQA for AS Dance

An exciting and diverse specification, accessible for all

AS Dance is a dynamic qualification which encourages students to develop their creative, physical, emotional and intellectual capacity.

This specification reflects both current and historical dance practices, making it more relevant, and more likely to inspire a lifelong passion and appreciation for dance.

We recognise the role of dance in young people’s lives and students can study a range of dance styles. We’ve set relevant and exciting sources for all choreography and broadened our areas of study. Students can perform and choreograph in a style of their choice, providing it meets the assessment criteria.

We’ve also taken care to ensure the assessment structure will give students of all abilities the chance to excel.

Assessments are clear, well-structured and easy to understand. Exam questions take a variety of styles; this helps to build students’ confidence and gives them the opportunity to be accurately and fairly awarded marks.

Teach AS and A-level together

The specification has been designed to enable AS and A-level students to be co-taught. For example, you may deliver the course to AS and A-level students in the same year group, as well as give AS students the option to progress onto the full A-level.

At the start of the course, to ensure you are clear about the standards at AS and A-level, review the dance online exemplar materials provided on e-AQA.

Marking you can trust

Your students will receive the grade that fairly represents their achievement and skills.

Clear progression to higher education and beyond

We’ve bridged the gap between AS, A-level and higher education providers, giving your students the skills and experience to better prepare them for the demands of higher education or the workplace.

You can find out about all our dance qualifications at aqa.org.uk/dance  

Support and resources to help you teach

We’ve worked with experienced teachers to provide you with a range of resources that will help you confidently plan, teach and prepare for exams.

Teaching resources

Visit aqa.org.uk/7236   to see all our teaching resources. They include:

• schemes of work: a variety of ideas across all titles to help you plan your course with confidence
• good practice guides: that will help you to inspire and challenge students to think creatively
• exemplification materials: that showcase sets of students’ work supported by examiner commentaries and guidance.

Support service

• Training courses: to help you deliver AQA dance qualifications.
• Subject expertise courses: for all teachers, from newly-qualified teachers who are just getting started to experienced teachers looking for fresh inspiration.
• Dance advisory service: each school or college is allocated a subject adviser. You can contact them for one-to-one advice on any aspect of the subject, assessment and/or support with planning and delivery of course content.
• Subject community: provides access to free resources and services offered by many dance organisations and universities.
• Support meetings: to help you with course delivery; offering practical teaching strategies and approaches that really work.
• Teacher network group: this group has been set up to allow teachers to contact colleagues at other centres to share ideas about resources and teaching strategies for the AQA specification.

To find out more about our support service visit aqa.org.uk/dance  

Preparing for exams

Visit aqa.org.uk/7236   for everything you need to prepare for our exams, including:

• past papers, mark schemes and examiners’ reports
• specimen papers and mark schemes for new courses
• exemplar student answers with examiner commentaries.

Analyse your students’ results with Enhanced Results Analysis (ERA)

Find out which questions were the most challenging, how the results compare to previous years and where your students need to improve. ERA, our free online results analysis tool, will help you see where to focus your teaching. Register at aqa.org.uk/era  

For information about results, including maintaining standards over time, grade boundaries and our post-results services, visit aqa.org.uk/results  

Keep your skills up-to-date with professional development

Wherever you are in your career, there’s always something new to learn. As well as subject-specific training, we offer a range of courses to help boost your skills.

• Improve your teaching skills in areas including differentiation, teaching literacy and meeting Ofsted requirements.
• Prepare for a new role with our leadership and management courses.

You can attend a course at venues around the country, in your school or online – whatever suits your needs and availability. Find out more at coursesandevents.aqa.org.uk  

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