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Exams 2020: Ofqual to provide guidance on “valid mock grades”

Ofqual has announced it will publish guidance on how schools can use “valid mock grades” to appeal A-levels and GCSE results next week.

The Department for Education confirmed late last night that some pupils will be offered the option to use grades given in mock exams instead of their standardised A-level and GCSE grades.

The DfE said pupils “could receive the higher result out of their calculated grade, valid mock grade, or autumn exam grade” – with the mock exam option available via the appeal process. 

The last-minute change has garnered criticism, with headteachers unsure how the new caveat will work in practice.  However, exams regulator Ofqual has shed some light on when education leaders can expect the information.

“We understand why the government has wanted to provide some additional assurance for students, by confirming that evidence from valid mock exams can be considered as part of an appeal,” the regulator said today.

“We are working urgently to operationalise this as fairly as possible and to determine what standards of evidence will be required for the appeal. We will provide more detail early next week.”

The regulator added: “We will continue to do everything possible to ensure students achieve grades that are as fair as possible in the circumstances this summer.”

Last week Ofqual set out the full arrangements for appeals this year, which confirmed schools will be able to appeal if they were expecting results this year to “show a very different pattern of grades to results in previous years”.

Elsewhere the regulator reiterated that under the current exams system brought in to facilitate the cancellation of summer exams the “vast majority of the grades students receive will be the same as, or within one grade of, their centre’s grade”,

“Adjustments were only made where necessary to bring consistency to the standards between schools and colleges. However, that moderation was essential to create a level playing for students.”

The deadline for schools to submit appeals is September 17.

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