Ofqual has confirmed today its appeals and resits process. We take you through what you need to know…
1. The appeal routes open are now just for errors
Schools and colleges can only appeal where there has been an administrative error with the CAG or rank order information.
Ofqual said rank order information was vital to support standardisation, but any change to a student’s position in the rank order would not change the student’s CAG.
Administrative errors might include, for example, mixing up two students with similar names, or accidentally copying across the wrong data. But importantly it does not relate to the professional judgements of centres in assigning CAGs.
2. That means students can’t appeal against a CAG
Ofqual says centres cannot appeal against the CAG that they decided was correct at the point of submitting it to the exam board.
The head of centre submitted a declaration to confirm that in the centre’s judgement this was the grade the students were most likely to have received had the exams gone ahead.
If a student is concerned that any reasonable adjustments were not taken into account when their school or college determined their CAG, Ofqual said they should discuss this with their school or college.
3. And the mock grade appeal route is gone, too
This was introduced at the eleventh hour last week before A-level results to offer pupils a “triple lock” policy to appeal grades.
However, because the government decided to award pupils the higher of their CAG or calculated grade, a route to appeal on the grounds of mock exam results is not available now.
4. Students can still raise concerns about bias
Ofqual has said that if students or others have concerns about bias, discrimination or any other factor that suggests that a centre “did not behave with care or integrity” when determining the CAG and/or rank order they should raise concerns with their school or college in the first instance.
They could also take concerns to the relevant exam board if more appropriate. Exam boards are required to investigate allegations, where there is evidence, as potential malpractice or maladministration.
Ofqual say such allegations would be “very serious and we expect them to be rare”.
5. Autumn exam series to go ahead as planned
The autumn exam series will be open to all students who had entered for GCSEs, AS and A levels in the summer series.
It will also be open to those who the exam boards believe have a “compelling case about their intention to have entered the summer series”. These will be held in November.
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