Your Qualifications and Progression: Summer Grading [Updated 3rd July 2020]

29th April 2020

Latest update - Wednesday 3rd June 2020

For students on work-related courses, such as BTECs, UAL and City & Guilds

The Government, through the exams regulator Ofqual, have now confirmed the arrangements for each qualification to be awarded this year.

An email has been sent to every student, detailing the position for their qualification, which will be one of the following three options:

• The qualification may have a calculated grade applied to it by the Awarding Organisation, which may include the College submitting likely grades for students.
• The qualification may have adapted assessments applied to it, which means that students will need to complete different types of assessments than were originally planned to achieve their qualification. If this is the case for you, we will be in touch to further clarify what, when and how these adapted assessments will take place as soon as we have details
• The assessments on the qualification may be delayed, because the nature of the qualification is such that it can only reasonably be assessed through assessments which cannot be adapted. We will be working with Awarding Organisations and within Government guidelines to try to schedule these delayed assessments as soon as it is safe and reasonable to do so.

The College is fully committed to making sure you get the outcome that you deserve for your qualification.

We will do everything we can to make sure that your progression for September 2020, whether to Higher Education, within the College to a new course, or into an Apprenticeship and/or work, is unaffected by the changes to assessment this year.

We know that being at college is about more than just getting a certificate - it’s about the skills and knowledge you need to take you to the next stage of your life and prepare you for your future.

That is why your teachers will continue to set you work to do. Try hard to engage where you can because it will help you, both now and in the future - but please don’t worry if in the current situation you are finding it hard. Your teacher, the tutorial staff and the wider College team are all here to support you, so just get in touch via your college email if you want some support. If you have any questions about what the above means for you, please contact qualifications2020@ccn.ac.uk.

Access to Higher Education Students

On Thursday 9th April, the QAA has published additional guidance on how Access to HE Diplomas are to be assessed and awarded in the 2019/20 academic year here

Every Access to HE student has been sent an email to their student email account with more details on what this guidance means for you.

GCSE and A Level Students

Ofqual have published a letter for all GCSE and A Level students which you can view here and detailed guidance for students and parents on how the grading system will work which you can view here.

With this summer’s exams having been cancelled, students will be awarded a calculated grade. This will be produced from a range of evidence provided by teachers, including performance on mock exams and non-exam assessment, combined with data from the exam boards. It is important to note that:

• for those students that wish to, there will still be the opportunity to sit their exams as soon as possible after schools and colleges re-open
• there will also be a process in place to allow appeals against the calculated grade.

Getting you to your next step

Our College is all about getting students to the next step and we will be supporting students to help them progress to the best option for them - whether that's progressing to the next stage of their course, moving on to higher education or starting their career.

We have outstanding teachers who are all dedicated professionals and they will be working tirelessly to prepare the information Ofqual and QAA will require.

We know that you may still have questions concerning this process and therefore have set up a dedicated mailbox for you to email those queries to qualifications2020@ccn.ac.uk

We will respond to any queries as quickly as we are able.

Applicants planning to join our college in September

For all students who have applied to join us in September 2020, please rest assured that your application will not be in any way disadvantaged because of the exceptional circumstances in which qualifications are having to be awarded this year. For more details see the Applicants for September 2020 section of our website here