JCQ E-newsletter Welcome Back: We hope this month's e-newsletter finds you safe and well.
The Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual have now set out awarding arrangements for the summer 2021 series. This follows the conclusion of its joint consultation with Ofqual.
The JCQ awarding organisations are looking in detail at the outcomes from the consultation, and will work to put them into action.
We recognise the pressures being faced by schools and colleges, and are working collectively to minimise the burden on teachers and students.
We will be providing support and guidance to teachers and exams officers in schools and colleges at the earliest opportunity. Please keep an eye on our dedicated Summer 2021 Arrangements hub.
To ensure you remain updated with the latest news relating to this summer's series, please continue to refer to your Awarding Organisations' support pages.
Summer 2021 Timeline: Please find below a summary of the timeline for summer 2021 awarding arrangements. The graphic below relates to GCSEs, A levels and some Vocational Qualifications. Guidance: Available by end of March
Retention of candidates' work: It is important that, where possible, all evidence on which a candidate’s grade is based, including copies of the candidate’s work and any mark records, is retained safely by the centre as this will be needed to support their own determination of students’ grades and the internal and external quality assurance processes and appeals. It is not a requirement that the copy retained is the original version, and a scanned copy of handwritten evidence or digital document will be acceptable. Centres must retain any information relating to a candidate’s access arrangements, or personal circumstances affecting candidate performance, which might need to be taken into account during the process of determining a student’s grade. Records of student evidence should be kept accessible in order that it can be easily drawn upon in the event a student wishes to appeal their grade.
As teachers will not yet have made any final decisions about the range of evidence on which candidates’ grades will be based, all candidate work and mark records for assessments should be retained for the time being as they might later be selected to form part of the final evidence base. If some evidence of candidates’ work is not available (e.g. because it was from earlier in the course and evidence was not retained at that point), the marks can still be used in determining the final grade, and the evidence that is available can be considered by the awarding organisations if the candidate decides to appeal on the grounds of the grade being unreasonable based on the evidence provided.
Vocational Qualifications: The DfE and Ofqual have also published the outcomes of their consultation on arrangements for awarding Vocational and Technical Qualifications (VTQs), and other general qualifications in Summer 2021.
Since the launch of the consultation document on 15 January 2021, JCQ members have been working closely together and with DfE and Ofqual. Key to this has been ensuring that arrangements put in place for awarding vocational, technical and other general qualifications this summer are fair and transparent.
Moreover, they do not advantage or disadvantage vocational learners against their peers taking similar qualifications whether general or vocational.
A key strength of vocational qualifications is the breadth of qualifications that are available to centres that allows them to choose qualifications that best meet the needs of their learners.
Whilst the JCQ awarding organisations are working closely together to align approaches to awarding similar vocational qualifications this summer, it may be necessary for the specific arrangements implemented by each awarding organisation to differ depending on structure and design of its qualifications and also to reflect how each qualification type would ‘normally’ be awarded.
Information on the arrangements for each qualification type will be available from the relevant awarding organisations.
Communications Survey:
JCQ has compiled a short survey in which we are seeking to understand your views on our communications since our previous survey in 2019.
The survey is open to heads of centre, senior leadership teams and exams officers.
The survey will close on Tuesday 30th March 2021. You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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