New JCQ guidance to support teacher assessment in summer 2021
26 March 2021
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has today published detailed guidance for schools and colleges to support you in delivering teacher assessed grades and help your students to progress this summer. This follows the decisions confirmed in February that students’ grades would be based on teacher assessment, following the cancellation of exams.
The new JCQ guidance aims to help reduce the burden of teacher assessment. It provides: detailed information on the key processes involved from creating your centre policy to the issuing of results; clarity on what schools and colleges have to do and when; how we will work with you; and a set of off-the-peg forms and templates so you don’t have to create your own. We hope your students will feel reassured that the process for determining grades this year will be as fair and objective as possible.
We’ve worked with our colleagues at other exam boards, and at the DfE and Ofqual, to ensure the processes in the JCQ guidance are consistent across boards and the guidance meets official requirements. We’re pleased that the professional judgement of teachers is at the heart of the grading process this summer and we look forward to working alongside you to make this as manageable as possible for you. Please take time to read more about what’s in the guidance, our summaries, key dates and what further guidance and support we’ll be providing in the coming weeks.
What the JCQ guidance covers
The guidance is divided into the following sections:
- Quality assurance, including creating a centre policy
- Grading* including using evidence, grade descriptors and exemplars, and data
- Additional assessment materials
- Reasonable adjustments, access arrangements and special consideration
- Submission of grades
- Private candidates
- Malpractice
- Results
- Appeals (more detailed guidance on appeals will be provided by the JCQ)
- Additional templates and support materials
Qualifications
The JCQ guidance applies to GCSEs, AS and A Levels, as well as our Extended Project Qualifications. Much of the JCQ guidance also applies to teacher assessment this summer for our popular Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals vocational qualifications which support progression to further or higher education. If you teach Cambridge Nationals or Cambridge Technicals, please be assured that we've provided a dedicated document for you. See here for more information.
Our summaries
To support you, we’ve provided summaries of the key content in the JCQ guidance for:
- Senior leadership teams
- Teachers and heads of department
- Students
Key dates
- 22 March to 22 April: entry amendments window
- 31 March: additional assessment materials (sets of questions, mark schemes and mapping)
- 12 April: additional support materials (marking exemplification)
- 26 April: entry deadline for private candidates
- 12 to 30 April: window for centre policy submission (via the centre admin portal - CAP)
- 19 April to 11 June: awarding organisations review centre policies and conduct virtual visits where needed
- 26 May to 18 June: window for teacher assessed grade submission via awarding organisations’ respective portals (OCR’s grade submission system)
- 18 June to 16 July: awarding organisations conduct sample checks of evidence (in exceptional circumstances, sample checks may take place until 23 July)
- 10 August: AS and A Levels and relevant other Level 3 results
- 12 August: GCSE and relevant other Level 2 results
- 10 August to 7 September: priority appeals window
- 16 August: deadline for students to request centre review
- 23 August: deadline for centres to submit appeals to awarding organisations
- 10 August to end October: majority of non-priority appeals take place
- 3 September: deadline for students to request centre review
- 17 September: deadline for centres to submit appeals to awarding organisations
Further guidance and support from OCR – what’s coming next
On 31 March, we’ll publish a package of support materials on our grade submission system to help teachers make grading decisions. The additional assessment materials we provide are optional and designed to fill any gaps in the evidence you have. The first phase of material will comprise sets of questions for all subjects (except art and design), mark schemes and mapping grids. This package of support can be used alongside the past papers and examiner reports we normally provide. Grade descriptors will also be available on our public website.
On 12 April, we will publish performance data and marking exemplars across a wide range of subjects and on 19 April, we will publish grading exemplars (student responses from historical exam papers) to further help you determine grades. This material will be available on our grade submission system.
Please note that from 19 April, additional assessment materials (without mark schemes) and grade descriptors will also be available to students on the public website.
We’re committed to supporting you and your students every step of the way this summer. We will continue to provide regular updates via email, on social media, on our website and through online events. Our customer support centre is always here to support you on 01223 553998 or support@ocr.org.uk. So please sign up to receive our weekly email updates, if you haven’t already.