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The cancelled A-levels and GCSE’s have been replaced with teacher-assessed grade giving schools the freedom to determine students grades by using mock papers and exams, along with coursework and essays.
All exam boards will set optional assessments in every subject but they will not determine a student’s final grade and pupils will not be assessed under traditional exam.
It has also been ruled results will be published earlier in August to allow a greater time for students to appeal their grades if they are unhappy. The A-Levels will be released on 10 August and GCSE’s on the 12 August. Teachers are also permitted to inform students of their results in any internal tests they sit before the end of term, but, are not allowed to tell them their final grades.
The new guidelines have been put in place following the exams fiasco last summer which was governed by a government-generated algorithm and has been warmly received news from teachers and students.
Schools will not be expected to keep in line with any of their previous results, which was was one of the parts of the algorithm that proved to be so controversial last year. Teachers will be expected to award grades based upon their professional judgement using the evidence they have available to them. Exam boards will check unusual grades and can investigate and change grades if they have any specific concerns about a schools results.
However, the Education Policy Institute has warned that the plans for this year risk “extremely high grade inflation” which could lead to repercussions for results over the coming years.