The announcement made by Kirtsy Willams, Minister for Education, contained a lot of information to process. Some of the main points to take away are..
- In place of exams, the Welsh Government intends to work with schools and colleges to take forward teacher-managed assessments
- This should include assessments that will be externally set and marked but delivered within a classroom environment under teacher supervision
- Her expectation is that this work will form the basis for centre-based outcomes which will be linked to an agreed national approach to provide consistency across Wales
So what does this mean for students?
The Minister’s announcement still leaves lots of question unanswered. ‘Externally set and marked’ sounds very much like an exam whichever way you word it. The difference to note is that teachers will have the flexibility to decide when these assessments are taken. This will deal with the potential issue of pupils missing assessments due to year group or individual isolation periods.
Kirsty Williams also stated today that these external assessments won’t be the only tool for grading but they will help inform centre assessed grades. Crystal clear guidelines will be required from schools and the powers that be on which pieces of work will contribute to this assessment to avoid student burn out if this method of assessment is to alleviate stress on students and not cause more!
The marking of assessments is also currently undecided. Potentially, assessments will be marked in school by teachers and samples sent off for moderation as controlled assessments have been in the past. Alternatively all papers may be sent off for external moderation by the WJEC. This is yet to be decided.
What will be covered in the assessments and when will they take place?
We don’t have any further details regarding what the assessments will look like in terms of structure and content. All we know at this stage is that decisions and planning will take place during the remainder of this autumn term and assessments will take place late in the spring term, which is just after the February half term holiday. These assessment timescales seem early considering the arguments for cancelling exams, however the argument for this is that time constraints are required to analyse and produce grades. The summer term will be used to continue teaching and learning based on the proposals so far.
Will these assessments be fair?
There is undoubtedly a significant amount of planning required from all parties, to ensure that this process is as fair as it possibly can be. I think most would agree there is no perfect solution in these circumstances and there are pros and cons for this new assessment system.
With this system, there will inevitably be the risk of information being shared with school’s undertaking the tasks at different times. This risk has been deemed worth taking given the circumstances and emphasis from the minister that the assessments are not exams but part of the grading process.
Will universities accept these assessments?
Wales is currently the only one of the four nations to not be sitting A level exams in the traditional sense. Universities have been consulted prior to the decision being made, with the Education minister stating that a variety of qualifications would be accepted. Swansea university recently reassured students that they would not be at a disadvantage as a result. Kirsty Williams also reemphasised that the A levels awarded will be approved by exam regulators and students will still be awarded an A level grade.
So the WJEC, Qualifications Wales, schools and the design and delivery group have much to do by the start of next term.
How can the Academic Coach help?
From our point of view, we still have enough time to prepare our students for whatever these assessments look like.
Although exam preparation is one aspect of our work, our exam preparation and application work mainly takes place in the exam bootcamps over Easter. As a result our weekly teaching will continue as normal.
We will be adapting our ‘exam prep’ provision in line with the new assessments as soon as we have more information and will run sessions accordingly in the spring term.
Irrespective of the final hurdle, whether it be an exam, assessment or mastery of a skill, our students still need to learn the work and will continue to do so!
We will continue to focus on building confidence, enhancing skills and preparing our students for the next steps in their academic journey.
If you have any questions please get in touch and rest assured, as soon as we know more, you’ll be the first to know!