Plymstock School has submitted provisional centre assessed grades and rank orders for each qualification entered to the awarding body in accordance with the Ofqual requirements.

For the reason of fairness, awarding bodies are putting these grades through a standardisation process to ensure that grading standards are consistent across all centres. The rank order of candidates will not be changed but the final grades that candidates receive may be different to the centre assessment grade.

On candidate statements of results and certificates, final grades will be reported in the same way as in previous years.

Final grades will be issued on results days in August as follows:

13/08/2020 – GCE (AS, A Levels) and other Level 3 qualifications
20/08/2020 – GCSE and other Level 1/2 qualifications

Results must not be released before 8am.
Results will be sent by MyEd with the student’s permission or posted if requested, or sent to the student’s school email account.

More detailed information will be included with your results on results day but rest assured that we have a system in place for you to be able to speak with us if you want to.

Ofqual, who regulate qualifications, examinations and assessments in England, will be providing information for students that sets out how their grades were calculated this year and the options available if they believe that their result was not properly produced, including access to appeal. The National Careers Service Exam Results Helpline2 offers advice each year for students who have not received the results they had hoped for. Ofqual will also make a helpline available to students and their parents or carers to talk about the appeals process and any other questions they may have about their results this summer.
https://www.gov.uk/careers-helpline-for-teenagers

Awarding bodies will also likely provide information for students about results. Plymstock School will signpost you to any relevant information on results day.

If you have a concern about a grade you have been awarded, you can

• ask Plymstock School to check whether an error was made when submitting your centre assessment grade and rank order to the awarding body
• raise a complaint with Plymstock School if you feel you have evidence of bias or that you were discriminated against; you could also pass such evidence on to the awarding body who could investigate for potential malpractice
• seek any information the awarding body holds in relation to how your final grade was calculated
• take an re-sit examination in the autumn series or in summer 2021

In certain circumstances, you can appeal your grade.
Dissatisfaction with the grades issued by exam boards does not constitute grounds for appeal, unless there is evidence that there has been a technical error by the centre or the board.
There are only two things that you could ask Plymstock School to appeal this year and these are if you have evidence that leads you to believe that:

• the centre made an error when submitting a centre assessment grade or rank order information
• an awarding body made a mistake when calculating, assigning or communicating a grade

If the Centre decides not to appeal on your behalf, you can appeal to the awarding body against our decision:

• not to seek any information the awarding body holds that would be needed for an appeal; and/or
• not to appeal to the awarding body

We will let you know how to make an appeal on results day.

Certificates, when received from the awarding body, will be issued to candidates.

Plymstock School has submitted provisional centre assessed grades and rank orders for each qualification entered to the awarding body in accordance with the Ofqual guidance1 on Awarding qualifications in summer 2020 and in line with the awarding body instructions.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2020

We were asked to make our best assessment of what grade each student would be most likely to receive in each qualification and to place candidates in rank order. The purpose of this ranking was to allow adjustments to take place and to ensure that the distribution of grades at a national level is similar to previous years. This is to ensure that grading standards are consistent nationally.

There is certain to be some mismatch between centre-assessed grades and the final grades awarded by exam boards because they will be adjusted to ensure consistency in grade distribution between years. This is a process that has never been attempted before and was forced on us by the extra-ordinary circumstances of the Covid 19 pandemic, which nobody could possibly have foreseen.

Please remember that:

• Teachers know their students well and centres are able to assess grades with a high degree of accuracy.
• The grades centres submitted to the exam boards were agreed by the centre following an internal quality assurance process and are not the sole responsibility of any individual teacher.
• The standardisation model developed by Ofqual and the awarding organisations is statistical and may not reflect the grades submitted by the centre.
• The standardisation process applied by the exam boards ensures grades awarded this year are consistent with those awarded to other cohorts in other years.
• This was the fairest possible approach available under extreme circumstances. It is a rigorous process which means that grades awarded this year are as valid as in any other year.
• This will allow pupils to progress to the next stage of their lives in the normal way

At Plymstock School, this is how we provided our centre assessed grades;

• Class teachers reviewed the broad range of evidence for each student, including their class work, home work, mock results, class assessments, practical work, together with reasonable adjustments or access arrangements for SEN students or personal circumstances, in line with the guidance from Ofqual, and then gave a centre assessment grade. Class teachers ranked students from most secure to least secure within each grade.
• Heads of Department discussed the centre assessed grades with the teachers and further ranked the students for each qualification. This information was moderated using comparative data for 2019.
• Heads of Department submitted grades and rankings to senior leadership who moderated them using a package which allowed them to compare this year’s centre assessed grades with the grades from previous recent years and nationally. They were also compared with the other secondary schools across WeST to ensure a consistent approach.
• Grades were signed off by the Head of Centre and submitted to examination boards by the Exams Officer with the following statement:

“I have checked the centre assessed grades and ranking for this qualification for accuracy and they are a true representation of student performance.
I declare that the information submitted is accurate and represent our professional judgement”
Each declaration was signed by the head of department and another member of staff.

Plymstock School will check the grades that have been awarded for any potential errors. In the unlikely event that we find any errors, we will contact the examination boards on your behalf and get them resolved for you.

If any of your results are not what you feel you deserve, please don’t worry, there will be an opportunity to re-take any qualifications you want to later this year. Don’t worry about this on results day, take some time to celebrate your best results first, then let us know. The fees for re-takes have not yet been confirmed. We’ll let you know more about this nearer the time.

GCE AS and A-level examinations start on Monday 5 October and finish on Friday 23 October
GCSE examinations start on Monday 2 November and finish on Monday 23 November

If you choose to take one or more exams in the Autumn 2020 series, the higher grade of the two grades will stand and students will be able to request a replacement certificate from the awarding body to show the higher of the two grades if they do improve the grade awarded in August 2020.