10 Sep 2021
This week we are sharing more information about our approach to school-assessed grades for the November 2021 series. This includes comprehensive guidance on collecting evidence and using evidence to set grades.
We can also confirm key dates for schools using school-assessed grades, including the window for submitting grades to us.
We will give some more information about adjustments and exemptions for the June & November 2022 series.
Thank you for your continued input - we hope you find this update useful.
November 2021
This section includes support for countries, and regions of countries, where we are switching from exams to school-assessed grades.
If your school is running exams for the November 2021 series, this information is not relevant to you, although you may choose to familiarise yourself with our approach. You can find the latest guidance on running exams on our website.
Our approach to school-assessed grades - updated guidance
We have now published updated guidance to help you prepare for school-assessed grades.
Collecting and using evidence to decide school-assessed grades (November 2021) explains the process we are asking you to follow, including:
- an overview of our approach to school-assessed grades
- types and quantity of evidence
- syllabus coverage and assessment objectives
- security and authentication
- syllabus-specific guidance
- the Rationale Document
- internal moderation and marking
- deciding grades for individual pieces of evidence
- deciding students’ overall grades
Most of the processes we are asking you to follow are the same as for June 2021, but we have updated our guidance to make it as clear as possible, and so everything is easily accessible in one place. Where we have added new guidance for November 2021, this is highlighted clearly in the document.
This guide does not cover our Grade Submission or Quality Assurance processes. We will be sharing more information on these soon. You can find all our guidance about using school-assessed grades on our website.
Key dates
Dates for the school-assessed grades process are now available on our website, including when our Grade Submission System will open, and the deadline for submitting grades. See our Key Dates card.
June & November 2022 exams
For the June and November 2021 exams, we put in place adjustments and exemptions to help schools manage the impact of the pandemic.
An adjustment helps candidates take a syllabus component in a way that is easier to manage. In some cases, this reduces the amount of work a candidate needs to produce; in others it adjusts the assessment requirements to take considerations arising from the pandemic into account. An exemption helps candidates to receive a syllabus grade, even if they are not able to take certain eligible components. You can find out more about the adjustments and exemptions that were available for the June 2021 series.
We know schools will want to know our arrangements for June and November 2022. Adjustments available for June 2021 for a component of a syllabus will be available again in June 2022*. Similarly, adjustments available for November 2021 for a component of a syllabus will be available again in November 2022*.
For exemptions in June and November 2022, we will use the same criteria to decide which components are eligible for an exemption as we did for the June 2021 series. We will confirm these as soon as we can.
*We may review adjustments we offered in 2021 for syllabuses we have revised for 2022
Stay in touch
View our latest updates on our Covid-19 information pages.
If you have any questions, you can review our frequently asked questions or contact us via the Help website.
For British Council Partner Schools or Cambridge Associate schools, please contact your local British Council representative or Cambridge Associate.