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Dear Student
As I am sure you are aware the last few weeks have been difficult and stressful for everyone involved in the process of calculated grades. Students, The Oxford Open Learning Trust, Exam Centres and even the Exam Boards haven't had the information required to layout a clear policy. All this whilst students have been pressured by their exam centres to make decisions.
On Wednesday evening Ofqual produced a consultation document on calculated grades. Some of the content within that document has been agreed with the exam boards and some of the content is genuinely under consultation. The Key Paragraph for our students is
"Other private candidates will have studied with an established provider, such as a distance learning provider that is also an approved exam centre, albeit that they had intended to take their exam at another more local centre. The heads of the centres with which such students studied are likely to be sufficiently confident in their understanding of those students’ likely performance in the exams to submit centre assessment grades on their behalf and include them in the centre’s rank order."
We have now reached an agreement with Edexcel (as of last night) that we can provide grades for our students, directly to Edexcel. We have also been assured that even if a student has been withdrawn by their exam centre, we will still be able to provide a calculated grade.
The details of this process have still to be finalised but we don't want you to spend your weekend worrying. Please be assured that The Oxford Open Learning Trust is in your corner.
We are in the process of compiling a list of our students entered at each centre for the exam board and we will undoubtedly be sending you requests for further information next week. Please respond to these as promptly as possible.
Who will be eligible for a calculated grade?
Ofqual and Exam boards have laid out some criteria for who can get a calculated grade, much of this is to avoid exam fraud.
The Criteria
- Students must have made their original entry before February the 21st.
- The Head of Centre must be confident that sufficient authentic evidence about the student’s performance has been seen by the centre to make such a declaration.
For International GCSE students who entered after February the 21st but before the exam cancellation was announced, we are hopeful we will be able to negotiate on your behalf and get you a calculated grade. We are still negotiating with the AQA and we are hopeful that very similar arrangements will apply for AQA candidates.
Choosing not to have a calculated grade
If you don't wish to have a calculated grade based on your study record, then you are advised that you should both withdraw your entry with your exam centre and inform us that you have done so and that you are not expecting us to provide a calculated grade.
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