Join the Tes Scotland team and secondary headteacher Billy Burke as they discuss this year’s Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) results and the future of assessment in Scottish schools.

We look at grade inflation; whether the likely return of external exams next year should be welcomed; and the changes that could be made to assessment in senior secondary in both the long and the short term.

Mr Burke - a former School Leaders Scotland president and the head of Renfrew High - says he understands the reluctance to make big changes to the way senior students are assessed in the coming school year.

A government announcement has been promised in the coming days on the 2022 exams but the expectation is external exams will once again be the order of the day.

That is understandable given that school staff are “knackered”, says Mr Burke, who is also co-host of the Changing Conversations podcast.

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However, Mr Burke makes the case for an immediate move to internal assessment for National 5 qualifications in a bid to get away from external exams in the three final years of school.

He also says that - while there was much criticism of the alternative certification model that replaced the exams - a big advantage was that, this year, students knew the grade they were on track for; had direct access to the person who had marked their assessments; and had no tense wait for SQA results day in August.

Previous guests on the Tes Scotland podcast include:

• Teacher Adam Black, who has been honoured for raising awareness of stammering
• Children’s commissioner Bruce Adamson
• Professor Rowena Arshad, an associate with the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland
• Ollie Bray, strategic director at Education Scotland and formerly one of the LEGO Foundation’s global programmes directors
• Carrie Lindsay, ADES president and director of education and children’s services at Fife Council
• Maureen McKenna, director of education for Glasgow City Council
• Blair Minchin, a primary teacher in Edinburgh who has made waves by sharing his teaching ideas on social media
• Khadija Mohammed, award-winning academic and teacher
• 2018 Scottish teacher of the year Chris Smith
• Former education secretary John Swinney (in January 2020 and July 2020).

To listen to the new Tes Scotland podcast with Billy Burke, click here.