Dear Student and Parent/Carer,
We would like to congratulate students on how they have prepared themselves for and worked through the recent trial examinations. Staff are currently marking these scripts and students will receive their grades in a report issued on Friday 17th December (Year 11) or Friday 7th January (Year 13).
The College is planning 2 further trial exam periods for Year 11 and Year 13 students. These are scheduled for the period 24/1/22 to 4/2/22 and 28/3/22 to 8/4/22. These trial examination fortnights will follow a similar format to the one that students have just experienced, so all are fully aware of what to expect.
It is difficult to escape the fact that we are still in very uncertain times with the Covid 19 pandemic and whilst we are all hoping that external examinations will take place as normal in May/June 2022, all schools are being asked by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and the Department for Education (DfE) to plan contingency arrangements in the event that these examinations are not able to take place. If indeed external examinations are cancelled, schools will be asked again to provide a Teacher Assessed Grade (TAG) based on evidence of each student’s assessed work which, subject to external scrutiny by the awarding bodies, will be the grade that students would receive for their GCSE, A Level and BTEC/Vocational studies.
It is therefore important to inform students that their performance in both of the forthcoming sets of trials will be used to inform any Teacher Assessed Grade in the event of external examinations being cancelled. Students are advised therefore to ensure that they prepare themselves fully for the forthcoming trial examinations and we would ask for parental support in ensuring, wherever possible, that students are in attendance for these exams. Contingency arrangements for students who miss trial examinations will only be possible where absence is for exceptional reasons.
In the event that external examinations do take place in the summer, these trial examinations will still be excellent preparation for these assessments but no TAG grades will be issued by staff. External examinations are scheduled from 14/5/22 to 29/6/22. Students will need to be available for this entire period.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. My email is: [email protected]
Yours sincerely,
Mr M Andrews
Vice Principal