CCEA publishes revised guidance

Following the initial release of the Heads of Centre guidance on 5 March 2021, CCEA continued to engage with several key stakeholders to gather feedback on this year’s awarding process. This engagement highlighted a need for some aspects of the administrative requirements to be revised. In response, CCEA has updated the guidance to address these concerns and to alleviate the burden on teachers and schools. The changes include the confirmation that the Candidate Assessment Record will not be required for every candidate and that centres may use their own records to support the process of arriving at judgements.

Along with the revised guidance emailed to all schools and colleges, clarification has also been provided on more general aspects of the process. This focused on the range, type and amount of evidence to be used in arriving at a student’s grade; the fact that there is no requirement for students to take multiple tests on their return to school; that the assessment resources provided by CCEA are entirely optional; that students should only be assessed on what they have been taught and that each school may determine how much evidence they use for each student.

A spokesperson from CCEA commented: 

“In the absence of public examinations, our aim is to provide an alternative awarding process which delivers fair and transparent grades to all students. Given the major impact COVID-19 has had on learning and learners, CCEA’s guidance has been designed to provide maximum flexibility for centres to determine grades which are based on teacher professional judgement. CCEA fully recognises the burden of responsibility that this task places on teachers and we hope that the revised aspects of the guidance will go some way to help reduce that burden”.
 

The revised version of Summer 2021: Alternative Arrangements – Process for Heads of Centre, can be located, alongside a bank of relevant up-to-date FAQs for teachers, students and parents, in the dedicated Summer 2021 web area ccea.org.uk/summer-2021 .