Foundation Humanities
WJEC Entry Level/Level 1 Foundation Humanities is a two year, 120 hour course for learners aged 14 to 16, assessed entirely by portfolio across two of five subject units (Business, Geography, History, Religious Studies and Social Studies) and the mandatory Unit 6 on sustainable communities in Wales. Literacy carries the course: learners read different types of evidence, compare perspectives, use key terms, explain causes and impacts, and write informed viewpoints, with discussion and presentations where tasks ask for them. Numeracy is light and depends on the units chosen: revenue, costs, profit and loss and pricing in Business, temperature and rainfall data in Geography, and measuring a campaign's success in Social Studies.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level and Level 1
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- High
- Amount of numeracy work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: Business (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 2: Geography (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 3: History (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 4: Religious Studies (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 5: Social Studies (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 6: Creating sustainable communities in Wales (mandatory): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 7 hours, 30%, 50 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC. Learners take two of Units 1 to 5 plus Unit 6, ideally in the final year
Skills that use Connectives and syntax
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Explaining causes, impacts and responses
Geography asks for the causes, social, economic and environmental impacts and responses to two extreme weather events and the impacts of urbanisation, and History asks for the short-term and longer-term impact of the Black Death. Learners organise explanations so that causes link clearly to effects.
Literacy: Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context, Connectives and syntax
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils use because and so to write three sentences on why people moved from the countryside to towns.
- Year 8
- Pupils write a paragraph each on the causes, impacts and responses to a storm that hit Wales, using connectives such as as a result and therefore.
- Year 9
- Pupils write an explanation of the short-term and longer-term impacts of the Black Death, grouping impacts as social or economic and linking their paragraphs.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 2, Sections 2.1.3 and 2.2.3, page 16; Unit 3, Section 3.2.3, page 18
“the social, economic and environmental impact of urbanisation”
Progression step 3
I can use and adapt different structures within my writing, e.g. reporting an event, investigation or experiment.
I can use paragraphs and make links between them.
I can use an increasing range of connectives to organise my ideas in sentences, paragraphs and whole texts.
Progression step 4
I can use summary, discussion of issues, detailed explanations and logic when covering a topic.
I can use a range of connectives specifically when organising my ideas in whole texts for different purposes.
Good to know
- Appendix A (pages 35 and 36) maps Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing to all six units. For numeracy it maps the number system and statistics strands to all units, mathematical proficiency to every unit except Unit 4, and geometry and measurement to Units 2, 3, 5 and 6.
- The only explicit calculation in the content is in Business: "Learners should know that Revenue - Cost = Profit or Loss." (Unit 1, Section 1.1.2, page 12). Calculator use is not mentioned.
- No marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar are mentioned. Marks sit under AO1 (40%), AO2 (30%) and AO3 (30%) (Section 3.1, page 27), and "The Assessment Pack will include all detailed information relating to assessment." (page 27).
- Spoken work is evidenced by the teacher: "Where required, performance evidence (e.g. presentations) must be documented using observation records" (Section 3.4, page 29), and "Written evidence must be annotated to show how it meets the marking criteria." (page 29).
- Learners can redraft once: teachers "may allow a learner one opportunity to improve their evidence and resubmit it", but feedback must "avoid directing learners on how to improve their mark" (Section 3.5, page 29).
- The content uses four stems that set the depth of reading and writing, from "Learners should be aware of" to "Learners should be able to" (How to read the amplification, page 11).
Links with other qualifications
Each optional unit leads towards the matching GCSE, Business, Geography, History, Religious Studies or Social Studies, which the specification calls "a broad basis for progression onto GCSEs in the Humanities area" (page 9). Those GCSEs step up the same literacy, from reading a few sources to judging bias and reliability, and from short viewpoints to extended evaluative writing. GCSE Business extends profit and loss to break-even, cash flow and income statements, and GCSE Geography and GCSE Social Studies extend climate and campaign data to averages, percentages and graphs. The reading, writing and speaking here also support GCSE English Language and Literature.
Source: WJEC Entry Level/Level 1 Foundation Humanities specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027, for award from 2029 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).