Announcement

24 March 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

I want to update you and provide as much clarity as possible regarding the current situation on public examinations. The government have announced that there will be no GCSE examinations taken in the summer and published guidance about this here. Students who were entered for GCSE exams including those students in years 9 and 10 will still be awarded a qualification. Exam boards will be asking teachers to submit the grade that they believe students would have achieved had the exam gone ahead. To help us do this we will consult both assessment and non-assessment indicators as identified by the Government.

Assessment indicators could include performance in mock examinations as well as in-class assessments. It is important to reassure those students whose performance in mock examinations were not as high as they and we would have liked. The most recent mock exams were taken in December allowing plenty of time for students to make substantial amounts of progress. We are aware of this and will take this into account, so students do not need to panic. 

The Government place an emphasis on non-assessment criteria which includes work students have produced outside of exams and any ongoing work set by teachers. Therefore, it is crucial students continue to check Google Classroom and Show My Homework for tasks set and submit these by the given deadline. Teachers will continue to assess the progress being made by students. 

It is important to stress that students will be assigned a grade using a fair and transparent process. Once more information on this process is released families will be updated. Students do not need to contact teachers requesting a certain grade. At present, teachers are focused on delivering the best possible education during the school closure and are not considering the grades to award individual students. 

For clarity, teachers will use the following indicators to assign students grades:

· Assessment results (including mocks and in class assessments)

· Homework (including any homework submitted in the coming weeks)

· Coursework already completed (if students have not completed coursework they will not be penalised)

· Effort put into studying 

· Engagement with home learning resources

Exam boards will use teacher judgements together with other data to award grades by the end of July. The qualifications and grades students receive will be 'indistinguishable' from those in previous years. Where a student is not happy with their grade they will be able to appeal. There will also be an opportunity to sit exams at the start of the next academic year and any improvement in grade will replace the previous one. 

Finally, thank you for your support and understanding during this challenging and uncertain time. Do not hesitate to contact the school if we can assist in any way.

Yours sincerely,   

 

Jo Dibb

Executive Headteacher