Year 11: GCSE exams, results, and what comes after 16 in Wales

Year 11 runs two timelines at once. The exam timeline starts in November, not May, because coursework windows and unit entries land through the winter. The next-step timeline runs alongside it, and in Wales it has one feature that surprises families who have read English advice.

Key dates, 2026 to 2027

When	What
November to December 2026	Mock exams at most schools, and a November unit series for some subjects
30 November to 4 December 2026	Core Cymraeg non-examination assessment window
22 to 26 February 2027	Second Core Cymraeg non-examination assessment window
Monday 10 May 2027	Written exams begin
Friday 18 June 2027	Last scheduled exam
Wednesday 23 June 2027	Contingency sessions: stay available
Thursday 19 August 2027	GCSE results day

Mock dates and coursework deadlines inside those windows are the school’s own. The national dates come from the WJEC and Eduqas timetable and the awarding bodies’ key dates, and we re-check them each September and January.

The marks that go quietly

Written exams are five weeks of noise. The marks that families miss are the ones handed in during the winter, when nobody is watching: coursework, non-examination assessment, spoken Welsh tasks with fixed windows. They are finished before the revision period begins, they cannot be recovered in May, and they are frequently what separates two grades.

A February assessment window is a February deadline. Treat it like one in October.

Using mocks

A mock is the most useful marked paper of the two years, because it is long, it covers everything, and it comes back with the wrong answers visible. The score matters less than the list of topics that lost marks. That list, worked through in February and March with spaced practice, is what moves a grade.

After 16, which is not what England does

This is the difference worth knowing early. In Wales a young person may leave school on the last Friday in June of the school year in which they turn 16, and there is no legal requirement to stay in education or training afterwards. England raised its participation age to 18 and Wales did not, so English advice about staying in education until 18 simply does not apply here.

That does not make leaving a good idea for most children. It does mean the choice is real, and that it belongs in a conversation in the autumn of Year 11 rather than in a panic in July. Sixth form, college, an apprenticeship and work are all genuinely on the table, and each has its own application deadline that the school will not chase.

What Fincho does in Year 11

The exam roadmap holds every national date with its source, plus the school’s own mock and coursework dates once the student adds them. Weak spots from mocks drive the weekly plan through the spring. Revision mode lists real past questions on a topic, and Pip marks them against the mark scheme and explains what was lost.