International Qualifications Update February 2021 Today’s guest experts: Hayley White Roberta Thomson Assessment Director Product Director for Academic Qualifications David Casey Head of Assessment Strategy Today’s agenda ● The situation in the UK - Ofqual announcements & consultation ● Principles of the approach for the May/June 2021 series ● The provisional timeline ● Support & communication channels ● Additional exam series ● Q&A session MY Ofqual and Pearson Announcements On 7 January 2021 GCSE, AS and A level exams were cancelled. Ofqual are going through a consultation which is due to be released in the week beginning 22 February 2021. We announced that Pearson International General Qualifications will also use a robust evidence-based process for delivering grades in the May/June 2021 series. Our priorities throughout this pandemic have been to keep everyone safe and well and to ensure fairness so that every student receives a grade that reflects their knowledge and understanding. Principles for the international approach for May/June 2021 The challenges this year are different to those of 2020 and therefore the approach we take will be different to the Centre Assessed Grades submitted in 2020. 1. The 'evidence-based approach' for international qualifications is aligned to the approach for UK qualifications, with variation as required. 2. Recognition of wide range of circumstances faced by international schools. The approach for international qualifications will provide flexibility to determine grades via a range of inputs (a “basket of evidence”) 3. The approach for IALs will reflect the modular design of the qualifications. 4. A robust and scalable solution will be available for private candidates. 5. An additional opportunity will be provided for students to sit exams later in 2021. More detailed information on the process will follow in the coming weeks but we know you're keen to understand more about what this means for you. 5 Approach for May/June 2021 Early sight of current thinking – full details will follow: • Student grade to be derived by teacher / centre; • A variety of evidence to be collated to inform the grade – a basket of evidence; • Unseen Pearson test materials will be made available; • Marking service to be offered by Pearson or carried out in centre; • Pearson to provide subject guidance and support; • Two step Quality Assurance - 1st phase virtual meeting with SLT, 2nd sampled subject level review of evidence; • Stages of appeal spanning centre and Pearson review to be available. 6 Provisional Timelines Supporting you throughout the process Your needs and priorities • Objective and fair assessment and verification of grades • Parity, fairness and recognition across equivalent UK and international qualifications • Certainty of approach; clear instructions and enough time and materials to prepare grades • Support - teacher workload • Motivation for students to continue learning Answering your questions • We know you’ll have many questions, we’ll open up for a Q&A session today but you can also contact us via contact form or phone; • More information about the approach for general qualifications will be released over the coming weeks as the Ofqual consultation findings are published; • Thank you for your ongoing patience and support. What are we doing: ● Preparing further support and guidance; ● Exploring enhanced services and support for customers such as private candidates; ● Devising support for teachers to support the grading of candidates. 8 Communicating the next steps We want you to know what to expect and when: ● We’ll continue to share important news and updates on our website and via the bi-weekly EO Update and our bi-weekly Pearson General Qualifications bulletin providing updates for Heads of Centre, Heads of Department & teachers ; ● In March and April we will be publishing detailed guidance on the process of deriving and submitting grades, arrangements for year 10 or private candidates, appealing grades and the autumn series; 9 What will the detailed guidance contain? To be published in March and April but we will not provide all of the answers at once ● For Exams Officers ○ Dates and deadlines ○ How to use the system ○ Amending & withdrawing entries ○ FAQs ● For teachers ○ Subject specific information ○ Curriculum support ● For Heads of Centre ○ Declaration ○ Support for teaching staff ● Parents and Students ○ Understanding the process 10 Next steps Whilst there are many unknowns there are activiites that you can be doing now: 1. Check entries are complete and correct. 2. Initiate conversations about private candidates to confirm whether you can support them. 3. Consider what evidence you have available that can inform/support grading, we will provide guidance about the ‘Basket of Evidence’. 4. Prepare for the gathering of evidence and the submision of information – consider how you will organise the process and your resource requirements. 11 Additional Exam Series ● We have recently opened a survey to understand your needs around additional exam opportunities in 2021. ● The scope of the survey is covers international qualifications. ● The UK general qualifications (GCSEs and A levels) are not included. ● The complete Autumn term schedule is under review and existing timing and schedules for the current IAL October series are subject to change. ● The survey can be found here. 12 Pre-submitted Questions ● Will the grades be submitted at unit or qualification level? ● What type of validation/verification will be done to assess the internal grading done by the teachers? Will there be sampling? ● Can you explain in detail how the teachers will collect the evidence for the students' predicted grades. ● How many pieces of evidence do you need each centre to hold for each student per subject? ● What is the procedure for external and private candidates? ● Do students need to finish the whole course? ● When will we have confirmation of plans? Please submit any further questions via the Chat panel Pre-submitted Questions ● How will grades for private candidates who have registered through our centre be awarded? ● Will the certificates indicate that the grades for this series were Teacher Assessed grades? ● How will the exam board ensure that grades are not inflated by centres? ● What weighting will the assessments provided by the exam board hold? ● What evidence do students and teachers need to collect for submission? Please submit any further questions via the Chat panel Contact us Email: pqs.internationaleo @pearson.com Call us: +44 (0) 120 4770 696 Raise a case on the portal at: https://support.pearson .com/uk/s/ Thank you for attending today’s session
