Schools should collect evidence of student performance that would be used to award grades in case of the “very unlikely” event that exams are cancelled next summer, the government has confirmed.
The new guidance published by Ofqual and the Department for Education this week, following a consultation that finished in October, stresses that schools are not being asked to “determine teacher-assessed grades (TAGs), and should not seek to do so”.
The DfE and Ofqual confirmed today that in the “unlikely scenario that exams are cancelled in summer 2023”, grades would be determined by TAGs.
As a result, schools have been asked to gather “assessment evidence to support resilience in the exams system”.
However, the guidance makes clear that the government is “firmly committed to exams taking place” and stressed that schools and colleges should not seek to determine TAGs.
Guidance on how to determine a TAG “will be provided only in the unlikely event that exams are not able to go ahead safely or fairly,” the regulator said.
On collecting evidence, the guidance encourages schools to “use their existing assessment arrangements as far as possible” and emphasises “the need to avoid over-assessment”.
Schools and colleges have not been told how often they should assess students as part of evidence-gathering, but they should collect a “wide range of content”.
The evidence gathered should also be collected under exam-like conditions “wherever possible” and the guidance advises that “wherever possible, a centre should either assess all its students who are taking a particular qualification using the same material at the same time or using different materials at different times”.
And the assessments undertaken should “be similar to full or parts of the exam papers they are preparing to take next summer”.
Teachers should inform students before they take an assessment whether their performance will be used as evidence.
And schools have been advised that a copy of student work should always be retained by the centre, either digitally or physically.
Ofqual and the DfE also confirmed that the specific requirement for the modern foreign language assessments to use vocabulary that is not on the vocabulary lists will be removed in 2023 and onwards, and exam boards can now give the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary if they consider this necessary.
And the proposals to continue to require exam boards to provide formulae and revised equations sheets for GCSE mathematics, physics and combined science exams in 2023 was also confirmed.
‘Greater gap’ between exams
Exam boards have also timetabled a “greater gap” between exams in the same subject than was the case pre-pandemic.
This would be similar to summer 2022 when Ofqual also revealed that there would be “at least a 10-day gap between exams in the same subject”.
The move allowed students who missed one or more exams in a subject to be able to achieve a grade through the special consideration process, “so long as they have completed the assessment for at least one component of the qualification”.
This year, headteachers have been told the gap is to “help students’ revision between papers and create additional time for teaching and revision or support”.
Ofqual chief regulator Dr Jo Saxton said: “In 2023, students will again have the opportunity to show what they know and can do in exams.
“We have listened to feedback and today’s decisions, together with some protection on grading, offer the degree of support students need as we move towards normality, while guarding against over-testing.”
