OCR | Schools Week

Heads heap pressure on exam boards by demanding at least 75 per cent of fees back

Nearly two-thirds of headteachers think schools should get back at least 75 per cent of exam fees this summer, heaping more pressure on boards to give a sizeable rebate. But one exam board has already said that 75 per cent is unrealistic. A survey by heads’ union ASCL found 45 per cent of 457 headteachers […]

Exam boards to use one-seventh of usual examiner workforce this summer

Exam boards will save millions by using only one-seventh of the examiners they would usually need in a normal year, while teachers spend their spare time marking assessment papers for GCSEs and A-levels. It comes as 10,000 educators signed a National Education Union letter requesting £500 compensation for teachers involved in deciding grades this year. […]

Some students may need to repeat a year if they can’t get a grade, says exam board chief

Some pupils may need to repeat a year if they have missed too much learning to be awarded grades this year, an exam board chief has said. Jill Duffy, the chief executive of OCR, said a “small number” of young people might have “lost so much learning that it would be difficult to award them […]

Let schools tell pupils their teacher assessment grades before submission, says exam board

Strict rules forbidding schools from telling pupils their teacher assessment grades should be dropped this year to prevent “sudden surprises” and reduce appeals, an exam board has said. Ofqual proposes that schools should not tell students the grade they have submitted to exam boards this summer. Pupils would instead have an option to appeal after […]

Exam board furloughs some examiners and offers £250 goodwill payment to others

An exam board is furloughing some of its examiners, but offering others a £250 one-off “goodwill” payment instead. Cambridge Assessment, which owns exam boards OCR and Cambridge International, is the first organisation to tell examiners of its pay arrangements in light of exam cancellations this summer. Whether the boards can use government help to pay […]

Complaints against leading exam boards double in two years

The number of complaints received by Ofqual about England’s largest exam boards has nearly doubled over the past two years, latest figures show. Statistics released by the exams regulator today reveal that there were 143 complaints made against AQA, Pearson and OCR in 2018-19. This is a rise of 54 per cent from the 93 […]

Edexcel allows exam candidates to opt out of gender classifications

Pupils taking exams this summer have been offered the chance to opt out of gender classifications for the first time. Pearson, the education company that owns the exam board Edexcel, made the step forward, by presenting candidates with the option of removing the male or female classification for their qualifications. The idea of a gender-neutral […]

OCR suffers 20% drop in awards as schools flee iGCSE

A major exam board has reported a huge slump in certifications as schools shun iGCSEs in favour of more traditional qualifications. According to Ofqual’s annual qualifications market report, OCR, the third-largest provider of GCSE and equivalent qualifications, awarded 21 per cent fewer certificates last year. Exam boards WJEC and Pearson also saw falls of 17 […]

How long do GCSE remarks take? An increasingly long time…

Pupils needing GCSE remarks before confirming a college place are waiting increasingly long times, Ofqual figures show. On average, pupils waited an average 11 days last year before receiving the results of remarked individual exams, known as Priority Service 2 reviews. In 2013 the figure was 10 days, and in 2010 it was just seven. […]