You will no doubt be aware that Ofqual and the Department for Education have issued some outline proposals for the examinations this summer. We anticipate detailed instructions being issued in February following the results of the consultation, but we welcome the outline proposals in so far as they fall broadly in line with what we anticipated and planned for and are what we believe is the right approach for our pupils.
The proposals broadly state that teachers would be asked to provide Teacher Assessed Grades (TAG) and would be supported in that by being provided with externally set papers and mark schemes to be sat, probably, in mid-May to early June. These tests would form a very important part of the TAG but not determine it entirely. This is very much what we had in mind with our proposed Final Internal Assessments.
These new tests would come with the advantages of being centrally set, benefitting from exam board guidance and having the additional quality assurance of random sampling across all schools in the country. Given that we will all hopefully be back in school by that point, they should also be able to run in proper controlled conditions.
We will wait to find out the specific details of the tests and their content and then look to amend our current proposals. The Final Internal Assessments would most likely be removed though, if we do have more detail on the nature and content of the exam board tests, we would certainly look to give the pupils the opportunities to practise similar tests before the real ones. As soon as we have that detail and have worked through the amended plans we will of course update you as soon as possible.
Ofqual and DfE have invited feedback on their proposals. You can find details of the proposals here and enter your feedback here.
Whilst we do understand that this is an extremely unsettling time, we are confident that our pupils are very well placed when compared to the picture nationally. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that the pupils are fully supported and prepared in order to get the best possible grades they deserve.
Please also see the links below for the FAQs we have sent our to Year 11 and Upper Sixth parents and pupils this week for your reference.
Thank you as always for your support.
Michael Reddish
Deputy Head - Academic
Ed Hester
Headmaster