Around this time of year the Scottish Qualifications Authority releases data to schools on national exams, which is under embargo until results day (falling on Tuesday 6 August this year).
On results day candidates across Scotland will receive their results either by text or, in the time-honoured way, via those brown envelopes pushed through letterboxes. This is an anxious time for thousands of students and their families across the country.
Futures depend on these results, especially if the young person has a conditional offer for university or college. Candidates remaining at school will either go forward with their choices of subjects in the new session safe in the knowledge that they have achieved the standard to move on to the next level, or they will have to review their choices, meet their guidance teacher and perhaps rejig choices and adapt their curriculum.
SQA results day: school staff well prepared
Staff in schools have already been preparing for all this. They will have set time aside to provide that very important advice that will ensure that young people have a coherent and sensible curriculum to follow. Principal teachers will also be awaiting results with a mixture of feelings; hopefully their candidates will have achieved as anticipated in the estimated grades submitted earlier to the SQA.
With the “alternative certification model” (ACM) used successfully during the pandemic in 2021, the SQA wanted to ensure that there were “no surprises”. But there will always be surprises - both unfortunate, where students have unperformed, and wonderful, where they have achieved even better than anticipated.
With high-stakes exams adding a large dose of the unexpected, anxiety and stress prevail. This is where the proposals from Professor Louise Hayward to reform the assessment system would improve candidates’ overall experience - if and when those proposals become a reality.
School leaders - headteachers and SQA coordinators - are also anxious about their school’s results. They will be on edge, waiting to see which faculties or departments have performed well and where there have been improvements or deterioration. They know their local authority will be watching; education directors and elected members will be keen to have speedy news about the initial results, which do not always show the full picture.
Handle the statistics with care
That really comes into true focus in February once all the statistics have gone into the Insight online benchmarking tool; appeals, college results and a wide range of courses (some non-SQA) that aren’t captured straight away all have to be included.
When commenting on Insight data, it is very important to have proper training in order to analyse it properly. There is a lot of very useful information there that, if used correctly and wisely, can help to improve results for future students.
We need to be data-rich and data-aware, but not so focused on data that we can’t see the wood for the trees. What each individual young person achieves should be the main focus. What is the story behind their achievements (or lack of them)? What hidden facts - missing from the data - have hindered or helped them?
Inconsistencies in results can be due to staff absence, where no supply teacher was available (despite the best efforts of the school); to poor commitment by students; to poor-quality learning and teaching. They can be due to students being on the wrong course at the start of the year and forced to do a subject they are not interested in.
That is why the coming days are so crucial for young people. Once they get their results, they need to be sure they are now on correct paths and - for those still in education - get off to a flying start for the next school year, with a curriculum that will lead them to success.
Graham Hutton is general secretary of School Leaders Scotland
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