The prospect of deciding a child’s future is one that fills me with dread. Teachers up and down the country now have complete responsibility for assessing, grading and standardisation of their cohorts’ grades, and I can’t help feeling it’s another hammer blow for us normal classroom teachers.

It’s no secret that the centre-assessed grades (CAGs) and that algorithm were absolutely shambolic last year. We expected (naively) a system that had some level of logic, and what we got were myriad broken promises, which culminated in a complete U-turn in strategy, and left all of us scratching our heads. 

Those who calculated the CAGs fairly, putting a robust checking and vetting system in place, could hold their heads high. But those who knew there would be no submission of evidence, and so inflated their grades, got away with it…

But, for all their flaws, CAGs protected teachers to a degree. It was the centre that took the flak during the appeals process - not individuals.

GCSEs and A levels 2021: Teachers are in the firing line

What worries me most about this newest shift in language is the focus on the teacher. Teacher-assessed grades (TAGs) are to be calculated very differently from their short-lived predecessors, the CAGs. 

Yes, TAGs address some of the shortcomings that CAGs brought about. But if you delve a bit deeper, it becomes clear that really it’s the same shambles waiting to happen again - the difference is that it’s those at the chalkface in the crosshairs this time.

Making the decision about what to do in terms of assessment and grading is the first hurdle, and it is clear that the advice is anything but clear. You can do exam-board tests, but you don’t have to do exam-board tests. You can submit mocks, but you might not want to submit mocks. You can make up your own form of assessment...there is never going to be consistency, but surely some attempt at consistency would significantly increase the validity of the grades given?

In a lot of schools, the decision has been batted back to teachers to decide how best to evidence the grades - another masked risk. A lot of classroom teachers don’t have experience with assessment design and, in turn, are walking into a nightmare scenario around appeals. 

A huge factor that is worrying me and a lot of others around me is the workload element of TAGs. If the grades need to be evidenced through assessment, those assessments will need marking in-house. So not only are we designing and executing the terminal assessments, but we are also marking and moderating them. Casting my mind back to the days of coursework, wasn’t it all changed because they couldn’t ensure consistency and fairness? And that was with consistent questions and tasks. The mind boggles.

Covid: Grading students is a complete farce this year

Not only is the vagueness and ambiguity of TAGs going to increase workload, but it is going to - and already is - creating a substantial mental strain on teachers and leaders in a profession that has been undercut, undersupported and underprotected throughout this pandemic.

The final hurrah? Shouldering the responsibility for the shortcomings of inept educational planning around exams. 

The more I think about the big picture, the more I feel as though grading students is a complete farce this year. These children have missed out on nearly a whole year of face-to-face learning. Instead of a series of hastily planned assessments and cobbled-together grades, they deserve something that has some value. 

What’s more, I feel a sense of responsibility for their further studies. So many students will miss out on the support they need in maths and English, simply because their grades will be overinflated. I don’t believe teachers will knowingly inflate grades, but none of us is trained enough in unconscious bias for it to not affect the process. 

There has been substantial media coverage of how the grades will be awarded this year. Already, there have been the ground-testing emails from parents that are hinting toward certain grades for their children. Moreover, students are already making it very clear what they need to get on to the next stages of their lives. I understand it, but the pressure is going to build. 

I’m concerned that those who make the most noise will have the most influence, and we all know that in a society where the most privileged have a voice, it is the less privileged who lose out.

What is the answer? That’s the golden question. There is no easy answer, but in the classroom, things are already pretty hard. Deciding grades and justifying them is the last thing we need. But we’ll do what is expected, as we have throughout this pandemic. 

Don’t think it’s easy, though. It isn’t.

The author is a senior leader at a secondary school in East Anglia