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Pupils taking GCSEs and A-levels this summer will have their grades awarded by a combination of teacher assessment, class rank and the past performance of their schools, the exam regulator for England has announced.
Ofqual, which oversees schools’ public examinations, laid out the new system to award grades after the government cancelled this summer’s exams as a result of the coronavirus crisis and the school closures that are likely to remain in place for the rest of the academic year.
The new system will affect more than a million pupils studying for GCSEs and A-levels in England this year, as well as those taking vocational and technical qualifications at schools and colleges. The government and regulators in Wales are expected to announce a similar system shortly.
Under the system examination boards will ask schools to recommend a grade for each pupil in each subject, and ask the schools to “rank order” each candidate within each grade.
But each candidate’s final grade will then be assigned using a model to be developed by Ofqual, which will take into account the prior attainment of the year group of students at each school and college, and the results of the school or college in recent years, as well as the expected national outcomes across all pupils in England.
Schools – or each examination centre – will be asked to provide “a fair, reasonable and carefully considered judgment of the most likely grade a student would have achieved if they had sat their exams this summer,” Ofqual said. But the assessment will be kept confidential and not shared with individual students.
Students will have a right to appeal against their grade, and the option to sit the exams in the next academic year from September onwards.
Sally Collier, the chief regulator of Ofqual, said: “We have worked closely with the teaching profession to ensure that what we are asking is both appropriate and manageable, so that everyone can have confidence in the approach. I would like to take this opportunity to thank teachers and school leaders for making this process work for students during these very challenging times.
“Please be reassured that the grades you get this summer will look exactly the same as in previous years, and they will have equal status with universities, colleges and employers, to help you move forward in your lives as planned.”
Hamid Patel, the chief executive of the Star Academies group, said he welcomed the announcement by Ofqual as fair with a minimum of bureaucracy. But he raised concerns about how pupils taking GCSEs a year early, in year 10, would be treated.
He said: “Clearly, we would have all wanted the examination season this summer to continue as planned. However, that is not possible as we have a duty first and foremost to ensure the wellbeing and safety of pupils, families and staff, including saving lives.
“In the longer term, I look forward to taking part in the consultation process around whether year 10 pupils who have completed GCSEs in some subjects already and would have taken exams this summer like those in year 11, will need to study those subjects again next academic year. I would like those year 10 students to be awarded a grade this summer so they do not have to study the same content again. Otherwise they will not be able to study new subjects that they are planning to, and schools will need to recruit many more teachers.”
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, also welcomed the details as pragmatic and avoiding placing any extra burden on schools to collect evidence.
“Of course, this is not a seamless solution. Students will have been expecting to go through a very different process. However, their grades will now be determined by the professionals who know them best: professionals who are well-equipped to make these judgments, and we hope that gives students confidence that they are in safe hands.
“It will be extremely important for employers, universities and other places of work and study to play their part in supporting this year’s alternative arrangements, so that students can have confidence that their hard work will be judged correctly and valued in the same way as in previous and future years.”
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