Ofqual’s interim chief regulator has said that a plan to get schools to use externally set papers from exam boards to assess students are not mini exams.

In a new blog post today, Simon Lebus said the exams regulator was not trying to squeeze in exams through a different route.

He said Ofqual has proposed that exam boards use questions that are similar to normal exam paper questions because this is what students will be familiar with.

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His comments come as the Association of School and College Leaders said that external tasks set by exam boards as part of the evidence for grading this year should not be viewed as “mini exams”, and that schools should be given flexibility on how they use them - if at all.

In the post published this morning, Mr Lebus said: “Our consultation also proposes that exam boards use questions in their papers that are similar in style and format to those in normal exam papers.

“This isn’t because we’re trying to squeeze in an exam via a different route. It is because most students would be familiar with the sorts of questions used, as students typically use past papers to help them prepare for their exams. It just means there could be questions in a form that students are used to.”

He also says: “I want to tackle one thing head on - the proposal to have externally set papers or tasks to help teachers to assess their students objectively. Some have called these ‘mini exams’. This is not what we’ve proposed.”

Ofqual has had more than 90,000 responses on its consultation over how to assess students’ work this year following the government announcement that exams would not be going ahead as normal this year.