Mr Quinn referenced this Exams FAQ document in his letter dated 31st July. The FAQ document can be accessed here – we hope that this provides answers to any questions that you might have.
Frequently Asked Questions for Exams 2020
UPDATE 19/8/2020 – GCSE results. We have received the official results from the exam boards this morning, apart from Cambridge Nationals Health and Social Care, which we have been told we will get next Tuesday. However, we shall provide the centre assessment grade for this qualification tomorrow (although they could be moderated upwards by the algorithm next Tuesday). For all other subjects, students will receive one grade tomorrow for each subject, which is the higher of the centre assessed grade or the one calculated by the algorithm.
UPDATE 17/8/2020 – What was written below at 10:30 this morning is already out of date. At 16:00, the Government announced (www.gov.uk/government/news/gcse-and-a-level-students-to-receive-centre-assessment-grades) that Y11 students will receive Centre Assessment Grades (CAG) for their results on Thursday. They also stated that Y13 students would have their results changed to CAG (or they would keep grade calculated by the algorithm if it was higher than the CAG). This is excellent news, especially given what we found with the Y13 results last Thursday. However, we still need to check the accuracy of our FAQ document as a result of this change – the main issue relates to appeals. Originally, students could not appeal the CAG grade, but we need to ensure that this is still the position of OFQUAL. We will try to have the definitive version of the document by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday 18th) – hopefully, we will have received clear guidance from the Government by then.
In the link provided above, there was a strange sentence ‘On Thursday schools and colleges will inform students of their GCSE centre assessment grades, and official results will be released to students next week’. We are not sure what this means at the time of writing: we will be in a position to provide students with a piece of paper with their results on, but it appears that the ‘official’ results might not be ready (although they will be the same). Again, we hope to provide clarity on this as soon as we can get it.
UPDATE 17/8/2020 1030am –These FAQ were written based on the guidance provided to us as the A level results day approached. They do not reflect what has happened since the Government announcement that students would be able to use mock exams – the so called ‘Triple Lock’ – on Wednesday 12th August. We have been unable to update our FAQ document because we have no clarity from OFQUAL in terms of how the appeals procedure will work. They published guidance for appeals (what constitutes a mock exam and possible data that could be used) on Saturday 15th August, only for it to be taken down later that day. We await updated guidance (still nothing at 10:30am on 17/8 when this page was last edited) from OFQUAL to allow us to disseminate this information to students and parents/carers of Y11 and 13 students.
