Awarding bodies have designed very specific processes which we, as a centre, must follow in order to arrive at a Centre Grade for every student in every subject; below is an overview of these processes.
Syllabus changes
- Due to the disruptions some course had changes made to their content, coursework or assessment objectives by the relevant awarding bodies.
- Subject teams have reviewed these changes, as centre grades must be determined based on updated syllabus information.
Assessment plans
- Subject teams are required to identify a set of
assessments that covers the subject content and learning
objectives taught over the duration of the course.
- Coursework tasks are included in the assessment plan.
- Any assessments used must meet awarding body standards
- The assessment plan for a course is used for all students in a given cohort of students.
- Students are entitled to their previously agreed "Exam Access Arrangements", any assessment used in the plan must take account of these.
Marking
- Each assessment is marked or graded in line with awarding body expectations
- Subject teams are required to follow quality assurance processes to ensure marking is carried out accurately and fairly across all staff in the team.
- Sampling also takes place to check for accuracy and consistency.
Special consideration
- If a student suffers any adverse circumstances that are outside of their control these are taken into account.
- Adverse circumstance must be highlighted as soon as possible (at the time so the assessment) by the student.
Student declaration
- Following their final assessment students sign a
declaration to confirm
- they are aware of the assessments being used to determine their final grade
- they had the exam access arrangements or special consideration that they were entitled to
- all their work is their own.
Centre Grades
- Using the results of the assessments and grade descriptors, provided by the awarding bodies, subject teams determine the grade that best represents the knowledge and skills demonstrated by a student.
- The school carries out a wide range of quality control processes to ensure grades are determined fairly, accurately and free from bias.
- WJEC (Welsh boad) ask that these grades are then shared with students
- CAIE (Cambridge) and JCQ (English boards) insist that these grades are not shared with students
- Centre Grades are submitted to the awarding bodies
Final Results
- Awarding bodies carry out their own quality assurance processes to check for consistency and equality across all centers
- Final grades are issues on results day
- Level 3 (AS A2 level) 10th August
- Level 2 (GCSE) 12th August
Appeals
- There is s two stage appeal process for candidates
- Stage 1 – Centre Review
- A learner can ask us to check for administrative or procedural errors.
- Stage 2 – Awarding body appeal
- If a learner still believes they have the wrong grade they can ask us, as the centre, to appeal to the awarding body
- The awarding body will review
- The choice of evidence we used
- How we applied our procedures
- Procedural processes (and check for errors)
- Both stages of appeal require the learner to provide grounds for an appeal
- For WJEC
- Stage 1 happens when the Centre Grade is shared with the learner
- Stage 2 happens following results day
- For JCQ
- Stage 1 and stage 2 happen following results day
- A grade may go up, go down or stay the same following an appeal.