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A message to our exam students and their parents/carers, from the Principal.

Dear students, parents and carers,

Congratulations firstly on the many successes you’ve enjoyed in your years of education. Today would normally represent the culmination of your school journey, opening results confident that your hard work has paid off in some great results. This year, due to the exceptional circumstances of Covid-19, things will feel very different. Do remember, however, to celebrate. Today is an incredibly important milestone where you’ll get to take the next, very exciting, steps in your lives. I’m proud of everything that you’ve achieved.

Grades have been awarded very differently this year, and you’ll be aware that grades were calculated on the basis of a Centre Assessed Grade, which was then put through a statistical modelling process by Ofqual. There’s been a lot of press coverage about whether this process has produced ‘fair’ results, and the government response has been to put a ‘triple lock’ in place. You may accept the calculated grade you’ve received, resit your exams in the autumn, or appeal to receive a valid ‘mock’ result.

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Mock exams

Many of you will have seen the headlines that mock exam results can be used instead of the calculated exam results that students will receive from the exam board this week-but we need to be clear that this is really not straightforward. Ofqual haven’t yet fully told us what this might look like.

The details of this are complicated, and it is not as straightforward as simply using a ‘mock grade’ in place of the grade given by the exam board. Instead, if a student receives a substantially lower grade than the school has evidence for through mock results, this may be grounds for appealing the grade through a formal appeals process to the exam board. There are a small number of other technical reasons that grades can be appealed-but these appear very unlikely to result in changes of grade.

As a school we use ‘mock’ exams in a number of ways throughout the school year as part of our ongoing assessment. This includes walking through exam questions in class, doing partial exam questions in class or for homework, and doing full or partial exams under exam conditions. Furthermore, we use mock exams to help our students progress: for example by getting them used to the style of the exam, or setting them a greater challenge.

For this reason, a grade they may have been given as a ‘mock grade’ may not satisfy the criteria needed by the exam boards for appeal – if for example it was a paper that the students had planned answers for in class. Therefore one higher mock grade may not be sufficient grounds for appeal.

A majority of students will receive the grades their teachers have worked out they were most likely to achieve. In some cases, these teacher-assessed grades may have been marked down.

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Your next step

A majority of students should be able to go onto their choice of university, college or sixth form. All universities and colleges understand the situation this year and are trying to be more flexible. If a student gets into their choice of further study or training, we strongly suggest that they don’t go down the appeals or resit route, but instead focus on the next stage of the education and use the rest of the summer to prepare.If a student has not got the grades they need for entry requirements, the following routes are open to them:

• Speak to the sixth form leadership team about your options, including any evidence the school has they would have performed better than the grade they’ve been given
• Contact the university and college and explain this evidence-the sixth form leadership team are happy to support students in these discussions
• If you still cannot get into your choice of university or college, talk to the sixth form leadership team about the possibility of appealing the grade – but this should be a last resort. Not all mock exam grades will provide sufficient evidence for an appeal, so it’s important you talk to us about this.
• If an appeal is not possible, you may want to consider resitting the exams in the autumn or in summer 2021.

For most students neither appeals or resits will be desirable, as they will be able to progress onto further study, training or work.

Neither students nor parents can appeal grades directly to the exam board – this has to be done through the school, which is why the first step is always talking to the post 16 leadership team.

If you do wish to appeal grades, it is the school that does this on your behalf. The academy has to AGREE that there are valid grounds for appeal, as the school then pays for the appeal process. Should you wish to appeal a grade, you must make this known to the sixth form leadership team (Ms Edwards, Ms Cameron or Ms Caswell) in writing (email is fine) by 4^th September 2020. The post 16 leadership team, with myself, will consider the grounds for appeal and will then inform you whether or not the academy considers the appeal a valid one. If we do not, the academy will not put an appeal forward on your behalf. You can ask for this decision to be re-considered. If the academy supports the appeal, we will submit the relevant evidence to the examination bodies. Please be aware that there is no guarantee at all that grades will change; appeals are made every year but do not often lead to changes in the grades awarded.

We are sorry that the final year of school has been so interrupted for you but we’ve been so impressed by your resilience and hard work throughout. The very best of luck for your next steps. I’m delighted as ever to see so many of our pupils off to university, so impressed by the range of amazing apprenticeships that you’ve secured, and certain that you’re off to change the world.

All the best,

Carrie Senior

Principal