GCSE and A-level grades to be awarded this summer based on teacher’s predictions as lockdown forces exam scrap

Exam boards will write to all schools after Easter to set out what teachers need to do to give students their results after exams were binned over the coronavirus crisis.

Teachers will suggest what grades kids should get this year after exams were cancelled

They will have to send to the regulator the grades they believe the students were on track to get if they had sat the exams, and then rank all of their students in order of how well they think they have done.

That data has to be sent off by the end of May, and Ofqual will then use that to standardise the grades across the board.

Schools and colleges can use homework, class assignments and any mock exams to help them come to a conclusion about what award they will get.

The regulator has written to all students letting them know what’s happening too.

And results will come out even earlier than the August expected time too, they said today.

But no student will be able to find out the grades teachers have recommended for them in advance.

The news will mean 18-year-olds should be able to go on to university as planned, and kids sitting GCSEs will be able to move up to college if they want to.

Exam boards will offer more formal tests in the autumn to make up for anyone who wants to sit their exam later too.

The system will apply for GCSEs, AS and A Levels, and Extended Project Qualifications (EPQ).

Sally Collier, Chief Regulator, Ofqual, said today: “School or college-based assessment already has an important role in many GCSEs, AS and A levels, and in extraordinary circumstances such as these, schools and colleges are best placed to judge the likely performance of their students at the end of the course.

“We have worked closely with the teaching profession to ensure that what we are asking is both appropriate and manageable, so that everyone can have confidence in the approach.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank teachers and school leaders for making this process work for students during these very challenging
times.

“We have published a message to students to reassure them that we, and exam boards, will do everything we can to make sure that, as far as possible, grades are fair and that they are not disadvantaged in their progress to sixth form, college, university, apprenticeships, training or work because of these unprecedented conditions.”

The news comes today as the Government revealed it had worked with the BBC on a new education programme to be broadcast across the nation during the crisis.

Fourteen weeks of education programmes will go out to every household in the land thanks to the partnership, which will help kids to learn for the next term.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said today: “Working with Govt, the @BBC has announced a massive education programme to ensure kids at home keep learning over the next school term.

“Public Service Broadcasting at its very core.

Coming to our [homes] from 20 April.”

The news is a sign that schools won’t be open again until at least September.