When the first books summarising the past year hit the shelves, we know they’ll be able to draw on many uplifting stories of compassion, inspiration and triumph against the odds to counter the deep tragedy that has touched so many of us.

In terms of our students, individual stories are still playing out and many may be feeling anxious about what is happening this summer, following the government’s decision that it was no longer fair for exams to go ahead this summer.

However, I want to reassure students who won’t have the opportunity to take exams this summer that the awarding organisations that JCQ represents are working hand-in-hand with our regulator, Ofqual, the Department for Education and with teachers, schools and colleges to ensure that their grades are awarded appropriately.

GCSEs and A levels 2021: Minimising the burden on teachers  

To that end, the JCQ has published its guidance for schools and colleges about how GCSE and AS-/A-level grades should be determined in England this summer.

It has been developed with a great deal of care and input from across the sector.

We understand, recognise and applaud the incredible effort teachers have already invested in supporting our children and their families over these tumultuous months.

Our guidance has, therefore, been developed to minimise additional burden on them, while ensuring that the process of determining grades commands public confidence.

GCSEs 2021: Exam board grading guidance finally out

Asssement: Teachers to be ‘lambasted’ over grading

Results: How to make grading work

We are asking teachers to take an evidence-based approach, so that students, their parents and guardians, and all those who use the grades awarded this summer, can see how their final grade has been arrived at and know that they have been determined objectively.

An evidence-based approach to assessment

In simple terms, a student who is performing consistently at a grade B standard should be awarded a grade B.

We emphasise in our guidance that the grades students receive should only reflect their performance in relation to subject content that they have been taught, so they are ready to progress to the next stage of their education or into employment.

This is critical given the extreme spectrum of learning experiences that we know exists. Importantly, the range of evidence is flexible and can be tailored to what a subject cohort has been taught.

For this reason, students will be told by their school or college what evidence is going to be used to determine their grades.

There is scope to ensure that reasonable adjustments or mitigating circumstances can be accommodated, but there is not scope for negotiation about the evidence used. 

Past papers - an optional idea

Awarding organisations are making available additional assessment materials in order to support teachers to generate evidence.

In most cases, these will be based on past papers - including papers from 2019 and 2020 that haven’t previously been publicly released. I know this has prompted a lot of speculation.

Use of these materials will be optional and the extent to which they are relied upon to inform decision-making may vary between schools and colleges.

We know that there has been some concern that we are making these questions public, but we make clear that the purpose of this is to support teachers in determining grades through a range of evidence.

Thinking about the profile of overall results this summer, we will be asking schools and colleges to sense check their results against their historical outcomes in years where exams have been taken as part of their internal quality assurance process.

Every student is unique 

However, it is evidence of individual students’ work that must form the basis for each student’s grade.

This is a key lesson from 2020. The work schools and colleges do to validate their own grades will be supplemented by external quality assurance conducted by the awarding organisations.

This will include virtual centre visits informed by a review of policies developed by schools and colleges about how they intend to determine grades, and also random checks. This broad approach to quality assurance - starting within schools and colleges - will mean grades awarded across the system command confidence.

That said, we know some commentators will look to draw comparisons with previous years to challenge the validity of these grades.

It is essential to remember that the means of determining grades in 2021 is different from normal, so we understand that the overall grade distribution may look different from 2020 and previous years.

I am confident that, as our sector looks back on this summer, and we write our own historical chapter, we will talk about how we all came together to support our students at a time of great need and did the very best for them, collectively.

Dr Philip Wright is director-general of the Joint Council for Qualifications