Like most people, we can’t believe that it’s nearly November already. Not least due to a usual submission window from the Department for Education (DfE) passing us by without ever even opening. This has been a year unlike any other, where it’s been made abundantly clear that assumptions cannot be made about the schools calendar.
After a tentative wait, we’ve received the news that the 2020 performance tables will be opening this year for submissions. The technical guidance, we are told, will be released soon and we are still waiting for confirmation of when the first submission window will be opening.
As the details are being confirmed, we are committed to further developing a robust and comprehensive technical offer for schools that meets the requirements of governing bodies and of schools, teachers and pupils.
Whilst we await the technical guidance, we are continuing to review our qualification model to make sure that really does meet all of your needs. With that in mind, we’d like to share our vision for technical qualifications in 2020.
Time and resources are at a premium in schools, so we’d like to see workload and lesson planning reduced, in relation to our qualifications for schools. As we review our qualification models for 2020, we are developing combined level qualifications that support your pupils to achieve a level based upon their attainment throughout the course. With the ability to teach classes of mixed ability, you’ll have more time to prepare pupils for their assessments and portfolio work.
Another driver of the combined teaching model is instilling motivation in your pupils through effective target setting and enabling those pupils who reach a level 1 pass in the external assessment to still be able to achieve the level 2 overall.
We understand that exams and tests can be stressful and although a pupil may be capable and knowledgeable, anxiety can impact their ability to perform. We’re changing our external assessment model to allow pupils to be recognised for their breadth and depth of knowledge presented throughout the external assessment and not reduced to the lowest common level.
We want to help you to provide your pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum delivered through V Certs, high quality reputable qualifications supported by enhanced teaching materials and a good range of exemplar resources. We’ll shortly be sending out more information on our qualification model for 2020 to schools we currently work with and inviting your feedback using a survey.
With all of the upheaval and uncertainties in the sector, we can still see clearly where it is we want to go.
