Year 11 Exams update - 18/01/2021

Dear Year 11 Students, Parents and Carers,

As you will be aware, the Department of Education, together with the examination’s regulator, Ofqual, is currently consulting regarding the nature of the assessment of the qualifications which will be received at the end of Year 11.

Although there is much still to be decided and clarified to students, parents and schools, there are certain likely events which will take place. One is that it is likely that there will be an examination of some form, taken within school, which will form part of the bank of evidence required to be submitted by the school. However, the nature and content of this is still unknown. The second likely event, is that Year 11 students will be legally required to attend until later in the academic year than usual, in order to ensure that the full content of the qualifications can be covered and taught. What is vital is that all of the Year 11 students continue to engage and complete the work and tasks set by their teachers.

Currently, schools across the country are waiting on the end of the consultation and the forthcoming guidance to know what evidence will be required. Alongside this, we are waiting to find out what volume and standard of evidence relates to the awarding of different grades. For this reason, we will not be publishing the Year 11 SAR (Short Academic Reports) with ‘working at’ grades as we would normally do at this time. We do not know how the work completed to date relates to final decisions about grading and do not wish to mislead moving forwards.

We are aware that a number of colleges and further education providers will wish to be given certain grades at this point. We will be providing each student with their ‘target grade’ for the end of Year 11, as we do for providers as a standard each year. This grade is an indicator of academic potential for the student based on historic performance through the education system (in most cases from Key Stage 2) compared to their peers nationally. However, I must reiterate that this is neither a prediction of a result or an estimation of the current position of the student. It is vital that the students continue to engage in all learning tasks in lessons and as soon as we have clarity on the awarding of examination results, we will outline this to all.

Finally, from the start of the week beginning 25th January, Year 11 form tutors will be contacting students and parents, in place of the standard parents evening. This is an opportunity to discuss concerns, any issues with the current remote learning provision and student engagement in learning. If there is any other support required for Year 11 students, please do not hesitate to raise this during these calls also, or if you wish to be called by a specific member of staff.

Best wishes,

David Day

Headteacher