Ofqual has revealed how students will be assessed for GCSE and A-level qualifications this summer, following the cancellation of exams.

The exams regulator has published guidance for schools and colleges, along with separate guidance for teachers and a letter to learners.

Here’s our explainer on how it will all work… 

 

1. Schools and colleges must provide a grade and rank for each student in each subject

Schools and colleges are being asked to provide a centre-assessment grade for each learner.

This will be the grade that each pupil is most likely to have achieved if they had sat their exams, and will be based on evidence held by schools and colleges and reviewed by subject teachers and heads of department.

Schools and colleges will also have to provide a rank order of students within each grade.

This is because the statistical standardisation process will “require a more granular scale” than grades alone, Ofqual says.

If a school or college had 15 pupils for GCSE maths with a centre assessment grade of 5, they should be ranked from 1 to 15, where 1 is the “most secure/highest attaining”, 2 is the next most secure, and so on.

Ofqual has said schools and colleges  won’t need to send this data to exam boards any earlier than May 29, giving them at least eight weeks to collect it.

They expect results will be available no later than the usual dates in August, but potentially earlier.

 

2. Students should not be set extra work

Ofqual said it recognises that, given the timing of the announcement, schools and colleges may have “incomplete evidence”.

However, the regulator is adamant that judgments should be made “on the evidence that is available”.

This means there is “no requirement” to set additional mock exams or homework tasks to help determine grades, and Ofqual states that “no student should be disadvantaged if they are unable to complete any work set after schools were closed”.

Where additional work has been completed since schools and colleges closed on March 20, leaders should exercise caution where that evidence suggests a change in performance.

There is also no requirement to send any supporting evidence to exam boards, though schools and colleges should retain records of this in case exam boards ask about the data.

Schools and colleges should also not ask students to complete any non-exam assessment work, and marks do not need to be submitted for this.

 

3. What grades will be based on

Ofqual says judgments must be objective and based only on evidence of pupil performance, including…

• Records such as progress review data, classwork, bookwork and participation in performances in subjects like music, drama and PE
• Performance in non-exam assessment, even if not fully completed
• Previous grades (for re-sitting pupils)
• AS-levels (for A-level pupils who took an AS)
• Performance in class or homework assessments, and mock exams
• Tier of entry (in tiered subjects)
• Previous results of the school in the subject
• Performance of this year’s pupils compared to those in previous years
• Any other relevant information

 

4. What exam boards will do

Exam boards will use a statistical model being developed by Ofqual to standardise grades across centres in each subject.

The model will combine a range of evidence, including expected grade distributions at national level, schools’ and colleges’ results in previous years and the prior attainment of students at school and college level.

Importantly, the process will not change the rank order of students within schools and colleges, and won’t assume that the distribution of grades in each subject or school and college should be the same.

However, if judgments are found to be more generous or severe than others, final grades for some or all students will be adjusted down or up (meaning those pupils at either end of the rankings per grade are most likely to move up or down).

“We will do this to align the judgements across centres, so that, as far as possible, your students are not unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged this summer,” Ofqual said.

Ofqual is optimistic it won’t see any deliberate inflation of results, but aren’t naive that some schools may inflate grades. However they are confident the standardisation process will be able to level that out.

 

5. What about home-schooled and other private candidates?

Some schools and colleges will have accepted entries from private candidates, for example, those who have been home-schooled, or are following distance learning programmes.

These students should be included in the centre assessment process where the head of centre is “confident that they and their staff have seen sufficient evidence of the student’s achievement to make an objective judgement”.

However, students who do not have an existing relationship with a school or college “may instead need to take exams in the autumn to get their grades”.

Ofqual said it is “urgently exploring whether there are alternative options for those students”.

 

6. Ofqual will consult on excluding year 10s

Schools will only be able to submit grades for pupils in year 11 and above, including those taking A-levels in year 12.

Ofqual is proposing that grades are not issued for pupils in year 10 or below, and that schools should withdraw any entries for them. A consultation on this proposal will be launched “shortly”.

“We realise that, if the final decision is to exclude year 10 and below students, this will be disappointing for those students, but our objective in awarding grades based on teachers’ judgments is primarily to allow students to progress to the next stage of their education, or to employment or training.

“Students in year 10 and below will have the opportunity to sit exams in future exam series. We will make a final decision and provide further information before any data needs to be submitted to the exam boards.”

 

7. Don’t share your grades with students

Schools and colleges must not “under any circumstances” share assessment grades or rank orders with pupils, their parents or carers, or “any other individuals outside the centre” before final results have been issued.

According to Ofqual, this will protect the “integrity” of teachers’ judgments, and will avoid school leaders and staff being “put under pressure by students and parents, to submit a grade that is not supported by the evidence”.

Schools and colleges are being reminded that although pupils are allowed to request their personal data under GDPR, exam marks and other information used to determine results are exempt from disclosure under paragraph 25(2) of the Data Protection Act.

 

8. Grounds for appeal will be ‘narrow’

Ofqual says the normal arrangements for reviews of marking and appears “will not apply” this year.

The regulator is considering what arrangements might be put in place “to allow an effective appeal”, and says it will consult on proposals “shortly”

“Centres should expect the possible grounds of appeals to be relatively narrow and based on application of the process. In submitting data to exam boards, centres should make sure that it is correct.”

Pupils who feel their summer grades do not reflect their ability will be given the opportunity to take exams, either in autumn or next summer. If they choose to do this, “both grades will stand”, Ofqual said.

 

9. Take disabilities and personal circumstances into account

Where disabled students who have had reasonable adjustments agreed (for example, the use of a reader or scribe), or where other pupils have agreed access arrangements, schools’ judgments should take account of “likely achievement with the reasonable adjustment/access arrangement in place”.

However, special consideration requests, in the event that a pupil is unable to take an assessment or suffers a traumatic event that might affect their performance, “will not apply this summer”.

Instead, judgments “should reflect how the students would have performed under ordinary circumstances”.

“Where illness or other personal circumstances might have affected performance in mock exams, centres should bear that in mind when making their judgments.”

 

10. Does this process apply to vocational and technical qualifications too?

No. Ofqual said many students will be taking other general and vocational or technical qualifications instead of or alongside GCSEs, AS and A-levels.

While this process does not apply to those qualifications, the same “aims” apply. They are “working as quickly as possible to develop an approach and we will provide further information as soon as we can”.

Treasury officials have given colleges the green light to tap into their coronavirus job retention scheme.

Speaking to FE Week, a spokesperson said staff who work in areas of a college that are not primarily funded by the government and who cannot be redeployed would be eligible for the scheme.

The news will come as a huge relief to college leaders, more than twenty of whom have shared with this newspaper their plans to furlough dozens, potentially hundreds, of staff.

Responding to an FE Week survey sent to senior college leaders, one said they have a proposal being presented to governors to furlough as many as 185 workers from departments across the college including “apprenticeships, nursery, estates, commercial services, health & safety, finance, HR, student services and marketing”.

The finance director at a college in the East Midlands, who did not wish to be named, said the level of savings was still to be calculated but “without the government subsidising wages there would be large financial deficit, breach of banking covenants and redundancies”.

And a vice principal at a college in the south west said they plan to start with furloughing 50 staff “in the very short term, but could extend to up to 300 staff” to save “potentially £100,000 in the first instance”.

The coronavirus job retention scheme is a temporary scheme which will last at least three months starting from 1 March 2020.

The Treasury, due to have the scheme up and running by the end of this month, says “employers can use a portal to claim for 80 per cent of furloughed employees’ usual monthly wage costs, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that wage”.

But speaking to FE Week, a leading lawyer has urged caution, stressing “the guidance makes it clear that the government does not anticipate significant claims from publicly funded institutions”.

Analysis of college accounts data compiled by the Education and Skills Funding Agency shows close to 80 per cent of FE college income comes from “funding body grants” (see table).

Ben Wood, partner at the law firm Eversheds Sutherland, said: “The criteria that HMRC will apply to applications from colleges for furlough payments are not yet known and there are potentially serious reputational risks if a publicly funded entity is perceived to be unfairly taking advantage of a taxpayer funded scheme.

“Having said that, in the face of depleting budget income there are obligations on governors and college leaders to look seriously at any potentially available mitigation.”

Responses to the FE Week survey show many principals have already informed their college board of their furloughing decisions whilst others have sought approval.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges said: “College finances are on a knife-edge and many quick decisions are required by college leaders and their governing bodies. This decision is something that the principal would usually make under normal delegations.

“Because of the exceptional circumstances many leaders might engage their governing body if they can before making the decision.

“College governing bodies hold their principals to account for the effective operation of their college, including educational, financial and staff performance.

“Different governing bodies approach this task in different ways and with different levels of delegation. We’re confident that college leaders and governing bodies will be approaching these decisions with care.”

Just one of the 22 colleges that responded to the FE Week survey said they definitely did not plan to top up the 80 per cent government wage subsidy to 100 per cent for furloughed staff.

“What message would it send to those still being asked to work? Most people’s costs have reduced as result of not travelling, lower mortgage rates etc so net difference should be marginal and manageable,” the deputy chief executive of the college said.

The principal at a small college in the North East said they planned to furlough nearly 25 per cent of all staff, 36 out of 155, mainly direct apprenticeship delivery staff and administrative support.

But a spokesperson for the Department for Education stressed that it was not only Treasury guidance on the Covid-19 staff retention scheme that needed to be followed.

Colleges must, they said, have sufficient staffing resource in place to ensure vulnerable learners and the children of key workers are supported.

 

Advice from Ben Wood, a leading lawyer to colleges

“The starting point is that the job retention scheme guidance does not absolutely preclude colleges from applying but they should approach any applications with caution.

The guidance makes it clear that the government does not anticipate significant claims from publicly funded institutions.

Further, the criteria that HMRC will apply to applications from colleges for furlough payments are not yet known and there are potentially serious reputational risks if a publicly funded entity is perceived to be unfairly taking advantage of a taxpayer funded scheme.

Having said that, in the face of depleting budget income there are obligations on governors and college leaders to look seriously at any potentially available mitigation.

The areas where colleges might have some prospect of accessing the job retention scheme are likely to be connected with lost apprenticeship and trading income where activities have ceased as a result of CV19.

I would suggest that if an application is going to be attempted there should be an audit trail that identifies: lost income streams as a result of CV19; individual roles that can legitimately be said to have ceased for CV19 reasons and which cannot properly be said to be publicly funded; an understanding of the letter and the spirit of the job retention scheme and its guidance – and that those principles have been carefully taken into account in putting the application together.

“I would recommend that colleges take a minimalist approach to accessing the scheme and have a plan B in case an application is not accepted by HMRC.”

 

Ofqual’s chief regulator Sally Collier has “reassured” GCSE and A-level students that the grades they get this summer will look “exactly the same as in previous years”.

She has also promised made clear they will have “equal status” with universities, colleges and employers.

Here is her message in full:

 

I understand how unsettling the past weeks have been for you, since the announcement that exams have been cancelled this summer, and that you are urgently waiting for news. I wanted to let you know what we are doing to provide you with grades. Our over-riding aim in this is to be fair to students this summer and to make sure you are not disadvantaged in your progress to sixth form, college, university, apprenticeships, training or work because of these unprecedented conditions.

How will grades be calculated?

Your school or college will be asked to send exam boards two pieces of information for each of your subjects, based on what they know about your work and achievements:

• the grade they believe you were most likely to get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned
• within each subject, the order of students at your school or college, by performance, for each grade. This information will be used to standardise judgements – allowing fine tuning of the standard applied across schools and colleges

Your school or college will consider a range of things like your classwork and homework; your results in assignments and any mock exams; any non-exam assessment or coursework you might have done; and your general progress during your course.

This information will allow us, with exam boards, to standardise grades across schools and colleges, to make sure that, as far as possible, results are fair and that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged because their schools or colleges are more generous or harsh than others when making those judgements. That means the final grade you get could be different from the one your school or college sends to the exam board.

Do I need to complete any new work for my school/college to submit a grade?

Your school or college is not required to set additional mock exams or homework for your centre assessment grade, and you won’t be disadvantaged if you were not set, or were unable to complete, any work given out after schools were closed.

Can I see the grades my school/college submits for me?

No, this information will be confidential. Please don’t ask your teachers, or anyone else at your school or college, to tell you the grades they will be sending to the exam boards or where they have placed you in the order of students; they will not be allowed to share this with you.

I am a private candidate – what does this mean for me?

If you are a private candidate (for example, home-schooled, following distance-learning programmes or studying independently) the centre you are entering with should include you where the head teacher or principal is confident that they and their staff have seen sufficient evidence of your achievement to make an objective judgement. We are urgently exploring whether there are alternative options for those students who do not have an existing relationship with a centre and who need results this summer to progress. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be possible for all private candidates, some of whom may instead need to take exams in the autumn to get their grades. We appreciate that this is a matter of real concern to private candidates and will provide an update as soon as possible. We have asked organisations that represent universities and FE colleges to consider the steps that providers could take when making admissions decisions this summer for any private candidates who do not receive a grade. They have told us that they believe that institutions will consider a range of other evidence and information for these students to allow them to progress wherever possible.

When will I get my results?

We’re working hard to get results out as soon as is possible – results won’t be delayed after the dates they were expected in August, and ideally they will be issued a little earlier, so you can have the certainty you need.

Can I take my exams another time?

We are working with exam boards to offer additional exams in the autumn term as soon as it is possible to do so. We’ll let you know about these in the coming weeks. The information we have published covers GCSEs, AS and A levels, plus Extended Project Qualifications and Additional Extension Awards in maths. You can find out more about which qualifications and students are included, and the current arrangements for those which are not, in our detailed guidance; along with answers to other questions that you and your parents or carers might have. We will keep updating our guidance as new information becomes available, including to share details about vocational and technical qualifications as soon as we can, so please keep an eye on our website.

Please be reassured that the grades you get this summer will look exactly the same as in previous years, and they will have equal status with universities, colleges and employers, to help you move forward in your lives as planned.

With every best wish,

Sally Collier

Chief Regulator, Ofqual
 

Online assessment will only work for around 40 per cent of apprenticeships and the government’s “vague” guidance in the area opens the market up to “widespread malpractice”, awarding organisations have warned.

Last week the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education announced that face-to-face end-point competency assessment can be carried out remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.

But in a letter sent on Monday to the quango’s chief executive, Jennifer Coupland, Federation of Awarding Bodies boss Tom Bewick claimed to have already received “anecdotal evidence” that quality is already being compromised by some providers, who “may be inappropriately interpreting” the guidance as it is “not specific enough”.

The guidance is potentially opening up the system to widespread malpractice

Although he could not share the examples with FE Week, he said his organisation is currently vetting various “skilled trades”, such as the level 2 butcher and level 3 blacksmith apprenticeship standards, where the “application of real world competence is only really proven by a combination of seeing and doing”.

Bewick said that as can be seen in the WorldSkills competitions, the beauty therapist role, for example, is observed working with “real volunteer clients” and “you simply cannot repeat that level of intimacy over Skype or Zoom, especially under the current social distancing rules”.

“FAB estimates that only about 40 per cent of the current frameworks or standards could lend themselves to some kind of remote assessment; and even then we would anticipate some challenges around validity and reliability,” he told FE Week.

His letter to Coupland said he is “not currently confident that the new guidance will protect the quality and integrity of the apprenticeship system as a whole, particularly when there is so much variability and inconsistencyin how the external quality assurance (EQA) providers operate in practice”.

The IfATE’s guidance states that remote assessment can replace faceto-face observation as long as the arrangements are “cleared in advance” by EQA providers and “appropriate” technology and systems are in place.

Remote tests must be “supervised by an appropriately trained invigilator, or qualified assessor, who has the necessary qualifications, training or experience; and who has not been involved in the training, preparation or line management of the apprentice”.

If remote alternatives are not appropriate, a pause of up to 12 weeks in assessment “might be the only action”.

Terry Fennell, chief executive of awarding body FDQ Ltd and FAB vice-chair, said he appreciates that the authorities are trying to keep apprentices passing through the system at a time of strict social distancing measures.

But the “problem arises at the level of practical implementation”.

“Except perhaps for a few standards,many apprenticeships and especially those that require face to face observations are not really geared up for mass-scale remote assessment,” he said.

“Moreover, the government’s guidance is potentially opening up the system to widespread malpractice as EPAOs interpret the flexibilities in different ways that could lead to apprentices receiving inconsistent grades and/or unreliable results.

“The only way I can see potential abuse being minimised is if the Institute requires that all the candidates who pass through assessment in Covid-19 conditions will eventually have their result externally audited, once the crisis is over.”

The IfATE told FE Week that EQA providers have agreed remote assessment plans applying to over 50 apprenticeships standards, for “thousands” of apprentices approaching end-point assessment since their flexibilities were launched last week.

“The institute and EQA providers are working very closely with endpoint assessment organisations who helped to develop the guidance,” a spokesperson said.

“Together we are allowing assessments to be delivered flexibly and remotely, while maintaining quality.”

They added that over 300 of the 538 standards approved for delivery have no EPA due in the next few months

Delays have struck the break-up of the first college group to go insolvent owing to the “necessarily complex and resource-intensive” nature of the transaction.

The transfer of Hadlow College’s home campus (pictured), West Kent and Ashford College’s Tonbridge provision and Princess Christian’s Farm facility to North Kent College was scheduled to take place on April 1.

But this has been now pushed back by two months.

East Kent Colleges Group did, however, take over WKAC’s Ashford College and Hadlow’s Canterbury facility at the beginning of this month – as planned.

A North Kent spokesperson said it had been decided between them, the administrators BDO, and EKC to run to different completion dates “to ensure resources could be focussed on one transaction at a time”.

“The decision was to complete the EKC Group elements on March 31, 2020 and the North Kent College elements on May 31, 2020. That remains the plan that everyone is working to.”

A spokesperson for the Hadlow Group added that the North Kent transaction is “highly complex”.

The break-up of the Hadlow Group got under way on January 1 when its Mottingham campus, which had 186 learners and 23 staff, was taken over by Capel Manor.

The three-way split was recommended by FE Commissioner Richard Atkins back in July.

Ashford College currently has 1,077 students and apprentices and 103 members of staff. It merged with sites in West Kent, under the auspices of Hadlow College, following the break-up of K-College in 2014.

Both Hadlow and WKAC came under government investigation once irregularities in applications for transaction funding to merge the two of them were uncovered. This led to most of the colleges’ senior leaders and governors resigning, FE Commissioner intervention, and the group being placed in administration.

Hadlow went into administration in May with £40 million in debts, and West Kent and Ashford College went into administration in August with debts of over £100 million when including capital grants for the construction of K-College.

Hadlow’s Canterbury site has 158 students and apprentices and 33 members of staff.

The Ofsted grade two EKC Group has around 12,000 students and apprentices spread across five sites in Broadstairs, Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone and Sheppey; it also runs its own schools trust.

Upon completion of their part of the break-up, EKC appointed Folkestone College principal Victoria Copp-Crawley as interim leader of Ashford College.

She has worked in further education for 20 years and was previously principal of EKC’s Dover campus as well.

EKC chief executive Graham Razey said the campus transfers “would usher in a new era of technical and vocational education within the whole of East Kent for the first time”

A university is scrambling to recruit MBA apprentices amid the government’s review of the programme’s funding.

On Monday the University of Bradford contacted small businesses to insist that “if you’ve ever wanted to do an MBA, now is the time”.

An email, seen by FE Week, claims that government has “temporarily opened” the level 7 senior leader apprenticeship “up to non-levy paying companies” – even though the controversial course has been available to all employers since it launched in February 2018.

If you have ever been considering doing an MBA, there couldn’t be a better time

The university also claims the programme has been “massively subsidised for a limited period, meaning rather than firms having to pay £18,000, they would pay only £900”, despite the 95 per cent subsidy referred to for small businesses being government policy since April 2019.

The email adds: “Because there is only a limited window to apply and the government are due to review funding later in the year, if you have ever been considering doing an MBA, there couldn’t be a better time”.

It goes on to list eight course teaching dates from June 2020 to March 2021.

Craig Johnson, a senior lecturer at the university, signed it off by stating: “I urge any business which wants to grab this opportunity while it’s available.”

A review into the level 7 senior leader apprenticeship standard was launched in February after education secretary Gavin Williamson said he was “not convinced the levy should be used to pay for staff, who are often already highly qualified and highly paid, to receive an MBA”.

Government funding for it could be switched off later this year as a result.

A spokesperson for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education said the trailblazer group for the standard is currently reviewing the programme and will provide feedback by May 20.

The Department for Education said the deadline of June 1 for a decision on its funding future still stands.

They added that while the review is underway, it’s up to providers to decide how to recruit and promote the apprenticeship.

Training providers, including many top universities, have made millions from the MBA apprenticeship since 2018 as it soared to become one of the most popular standards in the country.

FE Week analysis shows there had been 6,387 starts on the programme since launch to the first quarter of 2019/20. Each of these attracted up to £18,000 of levy funding – meaning as much as £115 million has been spent on this standard to date.

The University of Bradford told FE Week it currently has 15 apprentices on the programme, but could not say how many more are expected to enrol this year.

When challenged on their claims about the programme being “temporarily” opened and subsidised for a “limited period” to small businesses, the university denied that the advert was misleading.

“The funding is under review. MBA apprenticeships are therefore under scrutiny and therefore we do not know how long we will be able to offer the MBA as an apprenticeship,” a spokesperson said.

“We want to raise awareness amongst local businesses while it is confirmed that funding is available.”

There is only a limited window to apply

Most universities were not able to deliver apprenticeships to small business until the Education and Skills Funding Agency started moving non-levy payers onto the digital apprenticeship service in January.

Prior to that, only providers that won a non-levy allocation via a tender could train apprentices for SMEs.

The University of Bradford confirmed that it only began offering apprenticeships to non-levy payers in recent months.

Natalie Wilmot, an MBA director at the University of Bradford, believes it is “important that the government continue to support this apprenticeship”.

“We see leadership and management development as crucial to boosting UK productivity, as it ensures that people are properlyprepared for leadership roles, instead of continuing to rely on ‘accidental managers’ – people with technicalexpertise in their area, but little formal training or education in business and management,” she added.