Charlton School

7^th January 2021

Dear Parent / Carer,

Year 11 examinations (Vocational and GCSEs)

Following the announcement of lockdown and school closures the exam boards have been in discussions with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Government, to resolve what happens for the forthcoming January vocational and the summer series of examinations.

Today, the Government have confirmed to schools that GCSE examinations will not be taking place and that schools will once again be providing exam boards with centre assessed grades that will support the final awarded result for each subject, without the addition of any algorithm to calculate the grade.

Vocational courses such as BTECs are still running exams in January, a small number of students sat a music exam today, but schools have been given the freedom to decide if it is appropriate for students to still take them.   

On reflection, and following the DfE guidance today, the secondary schools within the Learning Community Trust feel strongly that we do not want our students disadvantaged in anyway and so have decided to cancel the January exams for all remaining vocational courses.

It has not been confirmed what the future holds for GCSE or vocational examinations and there is a possibility that they will be awarded by a centre assessed grades alone or there may be some further assessment required, the DfE and Ofqual will shortly start a consultation on this.

If there is a summer exam for vocational courses we feel, as a school, that we will be able to offer far better support in the preparation for this exam, without the sudden disruption created by this January national lockdown and previous isolation periods within Year 11, which will result in students being more successful.

What this means for our students:

This announcement on GCSEs and vocational courses should only inspire our students to access the online remote learning. The evidence gained throughout their Year 10 and 11 studies will support the decision made by the school on the level of grade that should be awarded.

Teachers will have to predict the progress a student would have made had they have been in school. The only way to do this accurately, is to monitor the performance of each student through to the end of the academic year. For this reason, we are ensuring that Year 11 have a full curriculum offered through their remote learning, in line with their in-school provision, through a blended approach of live lessons on Teams and work set on Doddle.

Failure to attend the live learning and completion of required independent work, and internal assessments, will impact on teachers’ judgments that students are going to make accelerated progress and achieve high grades. We expect that the grades we submit will have to be supported by a range of evidence of students’ work.  As a result, I hope you will support us by ensuring that your child is dedicated to the remote learning and fully understands the consequences of not being proactive in their work. We will be monitoring both attendance and engagement in lessons in all curriculum areas.

In addition, the content covered in all courses will be needed for the next stage of their education. The impact of not engaging and then accessing college without the covered knowledge will be immeasurable.

We understand the impact of the decisions made on your child’s future. Cancellation of exams is a significant event as they have been working towards that end point throughout their school life. We will work together to ensure that they get all the support they need over the coming weeks until we gladly open our doors back to the students.

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk through this decision.

Kind regards

Mr A McNaughton

Principal