Schools in North Yorkshire will be on hand with advice and support as students prepare to receive their A-level results tomorrow.
Thousands of young people in the county will be receiving their grades on Thursday (13 August 2020) in schools and colleges up and down the county.
Following the cancellation of this summer’s A-level exams after the nation went into lockdown, this year’s results have been based on calculated grades. As a starting point, the grades used teacher predictions of the results students would have achieved if this year’s A-level exams had gone ahead.
For each student, teachers provided an assessment grade for each subject which took into account a range of evidence, including non-exam assessment such as classwork and homework and mock exam results, before going through an internal moderation to provide a rank order of students for exam boards.
Exam boards then standardised the results based on a process decided with Ofqual, the government’s body for regulating exams following wide consultation. Yesterday evening, the Government announced pupils in England had the right to appeal to use the grades awarded from mock exam results if they are unhappy with the ones they have been awarded.
A-Level students can also request to sit their exams, which can be requested directly through their school between now and September 4, with exams taking place in the autumn term.
On Thursday, teaching staff will be on hand to provide advice on university applications and other options such as apprenticeships and careers.
Stuart Carlton, Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services, said:
When schools were closed and exams were cancelled for the first time in living memory, we were in unprecedented times. We would like to thank students for persevering during all the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic.
On Thursday, staff will be on hand with information and advice on university applications, questions students may have about grading and where to find further support or advice, so students can look forward to progressing to the next chapters in their lives.
The majority of students are expected to receive the grades awarded to them by their school. Headteachers in North Yorkshire are keen to reassure students and parents that they went to great lengths to make sure these assessed grades were fair and accurate.
Carl Sugden, Headteacher of King James’s School in Knaresborough said:
We really want to reassure parents and pupils that teachers took a very rigorous approach to calculating grades.
Within our school, every department had their own meetings where they looked at students’ work and assessments and challenged each other to make sure the assessed grades were as accurate as they should be.
It was very difficult assessing those students at the margins and whether they would be graded the equivalent of an A or A* – these were hard decisions to make morally and ethically – but teachers spent a lot of time on this.
The Government has announced it will not hold schools and colleges to account on the basis of exams and assessment data from 2020 and this year’s results cannot be used by organisations such as Ofsted and local authorities to assess the performance or progress of schools and colleges. As a result, this year’s results from schools in North Yorkshire will not be collated by the County Council.
A-Level students looking for further information following their awarded grades may find the following websites useful;
National Careers Service; https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/ or tel; 0800 100 900
UCAS; https://www.ucas.com/
The National Apprenticeships Service; https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/
North Yorkshire County Council’s Adult Education Service; https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/view-adult-learning-courses-and-enrol-online
