Dear all
Summer 2021 Grades - Please note this affects Year 11 and Year 13 students, and any Year 12 students who were due to sit AS Level exams this summer.
Following my email of 19 March, I wanted to write again with further information about the awarding of grades for Summer 2021.
Exam boards and regulators are each issuing their own guidance about the principles to adopt when providing grades for Summer 2021. Detailed requirements are developing and some supporting materials and most training have still to be provided. Our plans will need to adapt in response to new information and changing circumstances, including the way in which learners might return to our school.
It is clear that, for each subject, your grade must reflect only your actual, demonstrated performance. We need to find representative and reliable evidence of that performance, including from the latter stages of your course so that our decisions are based on up to date information. Within a class, we need to use consistent evidence to demonstrate students’ performance, although individual circumstances may occasionally require alternative evidence to be presented. Where your subject includes coursework you should complete this provided it’s possible to do so, because your performance will form part of our judgement about your overall grade.
The attached document summarises the main evidence components that we will be seeking to use, along with the likely additional assessments required to form a basis for us to determine grades in Summer 2021.
Additional assessments, under controlled conditions, are almost all expected to take place in May to meet our deadlines for marking, quality control and submission. Additional quality assurance will be performed internally at school level and externally by the relevant exam board. There will be the potential for appeals.
Further information, including a more detailed schedule of our assessments, will be shared when available, once there is more clarity about protocols governing the return to school after lockdown. Finishing off the work you have been asked to do and reviewing what you have studied are important steps towards success. Don’t forget to allow yourself a break, try to eat and sleep well and undertake some exercise.
As more information becomes available, we will be in contact again.
Kind regards
Mr K Winstanley
Headteacher