As previously communicated, the Department for Education (DfE) have indicated that it will not be possible for summer exams to take place as planned. Ofqual have now launched a consultation seeking views on how to award grades in a way that reflects students’ performance fairly and accurately, recognising the disruption they have faced this year.
Following publication on Friday 15th January, the consultation will be open for two weeks and end on Friday 29 January at 23:45.
We have already studied the consultation in detail and suitable responses will be given both to this consultation and other organisations who are garnering the views of schools. However, the following information is provided to ensure that all students and parents are fully aware of this process. Whatever system is decided upon will affect the summer results that our students receive and therefore we felt it was important to make sure you were fully informed of this consultation and indeed made aware of how all parents and students are able to respond if they so wish. The link to respond online is included on the full consultation pages on the links below.
GCSE, AS & A level Qualifications.
In summary, Ofqual and the Department for Education propose that:
- Grades should be based on teacher assessment.
- Grades awarded should reflect the standard at which pupils are performing.
- Final teacher assessment will be made towards the end of the year, similar to when exams would have been sat.
- A breadth of evidence should inform teacher’s judgements.
- Exam boards should provide a set of assessment papers to support assessment.
- Exam boards should support internal quality assurance that takes place within schools.
- Boards will undertake checks to make sure schools’ approaches are appropriate.
- Pupils should be able to appeal if they think their grade does not reflect the evidence of their performance. In the first instance this would be to the school.
- Private candidates should be able to be issued with a grade.
Their proposed timeline is as follows:
- Students would continue with their education during this academic year
- Students would be assessed by their teachers in a period beginning in May into early June
- Teachers would submit grades to the exam boards by mid-June
- External quality assurance by the exam boards would be ongoing throughout June
- Results would be issued to students once the QA process is complete, most likely in early July
- Student appeals could be submitted immediately following the issue of results and would first be considered by schools and colleges
The full consultation document can be found on this link
We have also created a document which lists the 68 questions that are included within this consultation. This can be viewed here.
Vocational and Technical Qualifications
Similar alternative arrangements are proposed for students taking vocational and technical qualifications, such as BTECs and Cambridge Technicals, to ensure students are treated fairly and are equally able to progress.
In summary, Ofqual and the Department for Education proposals that:
Written exams for Vocational and Technical qualifications that are taken instead of, or alongside, GCSEs, AS and A levels should not take place. Alternative arrangements will be put in place to award these results.
Internal assessment should continue to go ahead remotely, where relevant, for all learners where possible.
The full consultation document can be found on this link
