I/GCSE Updates – Final Assessments
Dear Year 11 Students,
We hope that term has started well for you, and that you are making the most of the remaining learning opportunities for you on site prior to Study Leave! We are writing with a few updates regarding your final assessments, and we are also copying this letter to your parents, given its importance.
As you know, your CAIE subjects are being assessed by final exams. However, your Pearson (Edexcel or AQA) subjects are being assessed through a ‘Teacher Assessed Grades’ process. Further details appear below.
A: PEARSON (EDEXCEL AND AQA) – TEACHER ASSESSED GRADES
During the Easter break, Pearson shared with us substantial further information about how your teacher assessed grades are to be determined – so we wanted to share the key points from this information with you.
- Evidence Collection – Your level at the end of the course
The Exam Boards are very clear that we must base our grades on evidence from a range of completed assessments (rather than on a projection of what you might have achieved in any examination). However, both we and the Exam Boards recognise that students often produce their best work at the end of any course.
For this reason, your teacher assessed grades will be determined by a holistic judgement of the level you have reached by the end of each course, rather than by an average of your assessment levels along the way. So, for example, your mock exam grade may be a very useful piece of evidence in demonstrating the level you were working at in January 2021 – but it will not overrule evidence of you working at a higher level later on in the course if that evidence is available. We hope this information is reassuring to you as you head towards your possible final assessments for each subject, for which we know you are all working very hard.
Our faculties are in the process of carefully considering all of the relevant evidence to demonstrate your journey to your current assessment level – and the range of evidence each subject will consider includes the following:
- Materials provided by exam boards
- Groups of questions
- Past papers or similar
- Non-exam assessment (NEA) even if not completed fully
- Student work produced in same format as awarding board
- Records of student capability and performance over the course of study in performance-based subjects
- Records of each students’ standards of work over the course of study
Please speak with your subject teacher if you have any questions regarding the way in which this evidence will be collected, or the assessments on which it is based.
- Moderation of Grades
Once each faculty has completed their initial consideration of assessment evidence, the grades we submit will be moderated in three ways, to ensure they are fair in every respect:
- Each subject will moderate the grades submitted by each teacher to ensure that they are fair overall;
- As a school, we will also compare the overall grades submitted by each subject with our historical grade averages, to ensure that they are approximately in line with what we would expect to receive in a normal exam year – and if there are variations, we will discuss these further with subjects to make sure they are justified, and adjust up or down if necessary.
- Once we submit our grades to the Exam Boards, they will also consider them alongside our historical grade data, and will likewise adjust up or down as they may deem necessary.
- Confidentiality of Teacher Assessed Grades
The Exam Boards are very clear that these Teacher Grades are confidential. As an Exam Centre, we would actually be guilty of exam malpractice if we were to disclose to you the teacher assessed grades we are submitting.
- Appeals Process
We are confident that the Teacher Assessed Grades process is as fair as possible, given the difficult situation of the examinations being cancelled this year. However, when your result comes, there is still a right of appeal. Further details can be found at this very informative website especially made for parents:
B: CAIE EXAMS
As you know, your CAIE exams are all going ahead. Nevertheless, during the last few weeks of the course, your teachers may be asking you to submit to them evidence of certain key assessments you have completed along the way, if they do not already have copies of these. This is a routine procedure in any year, just in case any student is unwell on the day, in case of bad weather preventing an exam from taking place (e.g a typhoon), or in case of any other disruption to the examinations. Please make sure that your CAIE teachers receive copies of anything they may ask for as we enter the examination session. Check your schools’ emails once a day for updates.
Finally, we thank you for the extremely helpful way in which you have all conducted yourselves this year! We know it has not been easy for anyone to be in and out of distance learning – and we highly commend you all for the way in which you have worked so hard (regardless of the lesson format) in order to put yourselves in such strong positions for your final exams and other remaining assessments. We look forward to welcoming you back in June to begin your IBDP/CP journey with us!
With best wishes,
Kellie Fagan
VP Curriculum
