Qualifications Process Published
Published information from Ofqual (in charge of qualifications in England) about a replacement for exams. Very important information for all in years 11 and 13.
As you will have read in previous communications, we have been awaiting guidance from Ofqual on how grades for 11 and 13 will be awarded this year. We have now received that guidance and can explain to you more fully how it affects your child/children. For your information, a letter from Ofqual addressed to students and a more extensive guidance document written for students, parents and teachers can be found below.
How grades will be awarded
Teachers and departments will be required to provide two pieces of information for each child in year 11, 12 or 13 who would have sat an exam this summer. Ofqual will use this data alongside their own systems to generate a final grade for your child in each subject. The grade may be the same as the one we submit or it may be different. The below is quoted from the attached letter about the process:
How will grades be calculated?
Your school or college will be asked to send exam boards two pieces of information for each of your subjects, based on what they know about your work and achievements:
- the grade they believe you were most likely to get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned
- within each subject, the order of students at your school or college, by performance, for each grade. This information will be used to standardise judgements – allowing fine tuning of the standard applied across schools and colleges
Your school or college will consider a range of things like your classwork and homework; your results in assignments and any mock exams; any non-exam assessment or coursework you might have done; and your general progress during your course.
This information will allow us, with exam boards, to standardise grades across schools and colleges, to make sure that, as far as possible, results are fair and that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged because their schools or colleges are more generous or harsh than others when making those judgements. That means the final grade you get could be different from the one your school or college sends to the exam board.
We are not allowed to share either our grade or ranking with you. Please be assured, we remain committed to your child achieving their very best with us, and will ensure the data we enter is carefully considered.
What further work will be set for my child?
The Ofqual guidance is clear that no further work is required from your child. Teachers are to use the information they have already collected to form their final judgements. This means that no more work will be set by teachers for year 11 and 13 students. We advise that students look ahead to their next steps, be it further education or employment, and engage in independent learning and reading which will support them in the future. We will look to share some further ideas and taster activities for those year 11 students who will be coming back to our 6th form in coming weeks.
We remain committed to finding a way to celebrate the ends of year 11 and 13 with students, and will hopefully find a way to do so as the situation returns to a more normal one. More information will be shared about timescales as this becomes clearer. Please contact me as necessary using the email below.
Kind regards
John Partridge
Assistant Head, Assessment and Exams