Delighted to share GCSE results with our young people today
We are delighted that our academies will be able to share GCSE results with young people today. These are a testament to their hard work and perseverance over many years, with the support of the great staff who work tirelessly to ensure they have a positive learning experience and be their best selves.
As a Trust we wanted to take the opportunity to explain how results were determined this year in our academies. As you know, this year’s GCSE results had to be awarded differently from usual, after exams were unable to go ahead due to Covid-19. Schools and colleges were asked to use their professional experience to make a fair and objective judgement of the grades they believed a student would have achieved had they sat their exams this year, and to submit these Centre-Assessed Grades (CAGs) to the relevant exam board.
Groups of teachers and leaders in each subject in all of our academies worked together to discuss and agree the Centre-Assessed Grade for each student on an individual basis. They took into account a wide range of available evidence, including class work, mock exams, homework, internal assessments and other records of student performance.
The intention was that the exam boards would then moderate the CAGs, to check that schools and colleges had approached this task consistently, before providing students with their final calculated grades. Unfortunately, as you will no doubt be aware, the method they used to do this proved problematic, and was likely to lead to many grades being unfairly downgraded and therefore placing the life chances of our young people at risk.
The government therefore made the decision that GCSE and A level students would be awarded whichever was higher for each subject – their CAG or their centrally calculated grade. The grades that each young person receives today will therefore be whichever is the higher of these two grades.
Unfortunately, due to a late announcement on Wednesday evening by Pearson Education, we are now unable to provide grades in BTEC and some OCR National qualifications. Your school will support you in securing your place at Sixth Form or College if you are reliant on these assessments, please do speak with them. We have been assured that we will receive GCSE and A Level Vocational grades by next week.
We are confident that our process was rigorous and provided every student in every subject a grade that was a true representation of their work and progress made over time.
If you’re unhappy with any of your results, we would encourage to contact your home school, each will have set up a method for communication which will have been shared with you in your results pack. They will be able to discuss your concerns, and advise you on any next steps, though some may not be available at present or be very clear. You may also want to talk to the Sixth Form, College or in the case of A Level students the University you plan to go to. They may well be flexible about their entry requirements.
If you want to resit any of your exams, the current plan is for a full series of exams to take place in November in all schools, colleges and academies. We don’t yet have full details of how this will work, but please let your home school know as soon as possible if that’s something you’d like to discuss further.
Congratulations again for everything you’ve achieved in this most difficult of years, you are a credit to your school and your family, and most importantly to yourself.
Sarah Young, Director of Education