Ofqual has published guidance for centres and awarding bodies in relation to the awarding of grades to candidates who are unable to take their GCSEs or A levels this summer.
Ofqual has heeded the advice of BATOD, RNIB/VIEW, NatSIP et al. to state that centres need to take note of specialist advice from eg QToDs, QTVIs and QTMSIs in determining the grades. We have encouraged colleagues to proffer that advice which we reiterate here.
It was not in Ofqual’s earlier proposal so it is good that we have had that influence.
Indeed Ofqual asked Caireen Sutherland (RNIB) and me, Paul Simpson for our input into the wording following our contributions to the consultation and a meeting of the Access Consultation Forum on which we both sit and seem to have taken all our suggestions.
We would have liked them also to oblige heads of centre to declare that they had sought such advice in their declaration of accuracy and integrity but that is not there unfortunately.
The key paragraph is here:
“A centre should, if applicable, seek further information from teachers and other education professionals who have been supporting a student’s learning to allow them to make secure judgements about centre assessment grades and a student’s position in the rank order. This might include, for example, seeking information from teachers in another school, college, or alternative provision such as a hospital setting. It could also include peripatetic/advisory teachers who may work across a number of centres, such as EAL teachers or qualified teachers of deaf, vision impaired and multi-sensory impaired children and young people.”
Click here for the full guidance document.
We have made similar contributions to the consultation relating to vocational qualifications and we await the outcome.
Best wishes and please contact schools/centres in which you have pupils who would have been sitting GCSE or A levels this Summer.
