16 Apr 2021
This week’s update includes:
- Information on submitting candidates’ details for exemptions
- A reminder about our upcoming withdrawal deadline - 17 April
- A summary of our latest guidance around school-assessed grades.
Thank you for continuing to share your questions and suggestions with us. We are grateful for your input and continued support.
Submitting candidates’ details for Covid-19 exemptions
If you have made final entries in the June 2021 series and have approved component exemptions (also known as Covid-19 exemptions) then we need you to tell us which candidates you would like to exempt from which components. You can submit these details via the ‘Covid-19 Exemptions’ area of Cambridge International Direct from 19 to 30 April 2021.
To help you, from 19 April you will be able to access support and guidance on the component exemptions page. This includes a Guide to submitting candidates details for Covid-19 exemptions’ which has step-by-step instructions about how to submit exemptions on Direct. Also available will be a guidance video to walk you through the submission process, and answers to frequently asked questions.
From 19 April, if you are unable to see the ‘Covid-19 Exemptions’ area in Direct please check if you have made final entries for the June 2021 series. If you submitted your initial application for component exemptions before the deadline of 17 April, check if we have approved them. If you submitted an application shortly before, or on, 17 April then you may need to wait 48 hours for us to process your application.
Reminder of withdrawal deadline - 17 April
We understand that you may need to withdraw candidates at short notice, and we have adapted our process to support you. You may withdraw candidates via Direct until 17 April 2021. You can withdraw entries after this date until seven days after the exam series by contacting us. You will receive a credit for these withdrawn entries. Some schools have asked whether they can switch individual candidates to school-assessed grades. We are only switching from exams to school-assessed grades in countries or regions within countries where government directives mean exams cannot take place.
Latest guidance around school-assessed grades
This section outlines the latest guidance we have produced to support schools using school-assessed grades for June 2021. This guidance is just for your information, as schools in your country or region are running exams. You do not need to do anything.
Rationale Document
The template for the Rationale Document is available, plus a number of examples of completed Rationale Documents showing what we need to know for each syllabus and how much detail is required. We will ask schools for a Rationale Document for each syllabus, alongside portfolios of student evidence as part of our Quality Assurance process.
Further guidance on deciding school-assessed grades
In recent weeks we have published Collecting evidence to support school-assessed grades and our summary explaining how you should work out your school-assessed grades from the evidence.
This week, we can share new, in-depth guidance for deciding school-assessed grades. This guidance gives a recommended process for deciding school-assessed grades to help ensure fairness and consistency in your awarding. It also includes case studies, showing different ways of balancing the evidence to arrive at a final grade.
Guidance and support for teachers
We have brought our support and guidance in one place so that teachers can work through the information more easily. Schools can share our website with teachers who are working to produce school-assessed grades.
Key dates for school-assessed grades in June 2021
Our new Key dates card shows all the important dates and deadlines on the school-assessed grade route.
Our Quality Assurance process
We have developed a Quality Assurance process to allow us to check the accuracy of grades awarded by schools. We have published our process alongside the timelines for each stage, so schools can see what we might ask for and when. After they have submitted their school-assessed grades to us, all schools will be initially asked to send us information for at least one syllabus for which they are submitting school-assessed grades. This information will be the evidence they have used to determine grades for a sample of candidates, plus the Rationale Document for each of the syllabuses that we have selected.
Our appeals process for school-assessed grades
Our post-results checks and appeals process is slightly different to our usual process for exam results. Our process allows both centres and candidates to challenge their results, and schools can now read a summary of our processes.
Staying in touch
You can find all our advice on our Covid-19 information page.
If you have any questions, you can review our frequently asked questions, or contact us via our Help website. For British Council partner schools, please contact your local British Council representative.
We wish everyone in the Cambridge International community well at this time.