Weekly roundup 14 Dec 2020

Hi everyone

Mince pies at the ready, we're finally into December. It's certainly starting to feel more like Christmas with the drop in temperature this week - we even had some light snow here in Cambridge this morning.

The Department for Education (DfE) have announced a package of five exceptional measures designed to make exams and assessments for students sitting them next year ‘as fair as possible’ and ‘manage the disruption caused by coronavirus.

There's still time to be part of our Teacher Insight Panel where you'll have an opportunity to have your say on decisions around new and existing qualifications, support and teaching resources.

To kick off Christmas, our catering team have provided some delicious warming winter bakes for you to try at home. We've also created a Merry Quiz 'mass quiz for you to do with friends, colleagues and family (if you're not too quizzed out from lockdown). Next week, we'll share our selection of festive reads and top ten Christmas films - will Die Hard make the top ten or not? It's also Christmas Jumper Day on 11 Dec so expect some awful (and lovely) jumpers to make an appearance on some familiar faces...

As always, we’re here to support you and your students.

We don’t have all the answers on further adaptations yet but:

we’re working closely with the DfE and Ofqual to confirm how best to reduce assessments for some moderated units in Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals.
we will be providing information very shortly on which assessments you can drop.
we’ll apply ‘generous grading’ to awarding of our Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals in 2021.

We know you need clarity on the reduction of assessments and how the measures announced apply to Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals. We'll provide detailed information as soon as we can. In the meantime, it’s important to remember to continue to teach as much of the content as possible to ensure your students are as well prepared for their next steps as possible.

Above all, we want the measures we use to ensure a level playing field for students taking our VTQs.

It’s also really important that you’re able to mark your mock papers with confidence. To support you, we've created some FREE online 'How to mark a mock paper' workshops.

In these workshops, you'll apply a mark scheme to examples of real candidate work, hear tips on how to standardise across a cohort, and have the chance to ask questions of our experienced examiners.

Currently available for GCSE Computer Science, GCSE English Language, GCSE Geography, GCSE Physics, A Level Chemistry, A Level Psychology and A Level Religious Studies. NEW dates have also been added for January for A Level Biology and GCSE English Literature.

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