I am writing to you to explain how our Year 11 students will be assessed this summer following the announcement from the UK government that the Summer 2021 examination series will not go ahead as planned.

How will we assess Year 11?

Teachers will initially determine Year 11 grades, which will then be reviewed by the leadership team at Gloucester Academy.  The professional judgement of teachers will only be based on what has been taught to this point and teachers will use a range of evidence from across the course of study to make their judgement.

Teachers will be assessing student performance based on the following evidence:

• school work that has been completed throughout the course
• non-exam assessment, often referred to as coursework

• work produced in tasks set by class teachers that reflect marking of exam boards. This will include current classwork, homework, internal tests and mock exams
• a series of assessments in order to gather further evidence. These assessments will be timetabled and be taken under exam conditions. Our students have already received an overview of areas they need to revise in order to be successful in these assessments

We will be sending a timetable of these assessments during the week beginning the 19^th April, as well as adding them to the school calendar on the website.

In most cases, the range of evidence gathered by the teachers will be the same for every student. However, we may decide that a different range of evidence may be more appropriate to fairly inform a child’s grade, if, for example, they have missed significantly more teaching time than others in their class, for reasons outside of their control.  Your child’s teacher will make the final judgement about what evidence is to be included - this is not a negotiation. The school, and teachers, will not be able to tell students the grade they have submitted to the exam board.

How is the evidence used?

No single piece of evidence will necessarily be more important than any other. Teachers will be assessing a student based on a range of evidence to give an overall picture of their performance. Once all the evidence is selected and assessments are complete, teachers will decide on an overall

grade. They will do this objectively – so, if you are performing consistently at a grade 5 standard in a subject at GCSE, you should be awarded a grade 5.

It is important to say that much like with exams in normal years, the grades issued by teachers and schools will not take account of a child’s potential. They will be a snapshot of the standard they are performing at based on a wide range of evidence.

What happens after my teacher determines my grade in a subject?

Once a teacher has determined your child’s grade, it will be reviewed by other teachers in the school, so grades are determined consistently. Exam boards will check that policies and procedures are in place to make sure schools are meeting their requirements.

Reasonable adjustments, access arrangements and special consideration

If your child has special educational needs, and/or are disabled, and require reasonable adjustments, the school will have ensured that these were in place when evidence was gathered. Where appropriate reasonable adjustments were not in place when an assessment was taken the teacher will take that into account when determining the final grade.

Special consideration requests will not apply in the usual way this summer because students will not be taking final exams. If you think that your child’s performance in an assessment has been affected by illness or personal circumstances, you should talk to us about this as soon as possible. It is important that you raise any such instances before we submit a grade.

If you have any further questions with regards to the awarding of grades this summer please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely

Mrs P Lewis

Senior Deputy Headteacher