How will GCSE and A-Level grades be allocated?

THOUSANDS of students have been left stressed and worried about how the shock closure and cancellation of exams will affect their GSCE and A-Level results this year.

Things are becoming clearer around how the Department for Education is handling the cancellations and how htey intend to give kids the right marks. Here's all you need to know.

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When will GCSE 2020 results be released?

Results will come out before August Ofqual said today.

How will GCSE 2020 results be allocated?

The Department for Education has now confirmed that teachers will use homework, mocks and coursework to give students GCSE and A-Level grades this year rather than a formal assessment.

Exams were cancelled as part of the UK lockdown effort to fight coronavirus..

Teachers have until the end of May to send to the regulator the marks they believe the students were on track to get if they had sat the exams, and then rank all of their students in order of how well they think they have done.

Ofqual will then use that to standardise the grades across the board.

Exam boards will offer more formal tests in the autumn to make up for anyone who wants to sit their exam later too.

The system will apply for GCSEs, AS and A Levels, and Extended Project Qualifications (EPQ).

Sally Collier, Chief Regulator, Ofqual, said: "School or college-based assessment already has an important role in many GCSEs, AS and A levels, and in extraordinary circumstances such as these, schools and colleges are best placed to judge the likely performance of their students at the end of the course."

Speaking when the exams were originally cancelled in March, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the BBC: "We’re not going to be in a position where with confidence we would be able to run a full exam programme.

"We’ll be putting the details out tomorrow but children are not going to be sitting exams this year."

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How accurate are predictions?

Some education experts believe basing GSCEs and A-Level grades on teacher assessments and mock results isn't fair on students.

Professor Anthony Seldon, the vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, said to the Daily Telegraph: "Predicted A-level grades are wrong four times out of five.

"I know this from heading schools for 20 years, and I know from running a university now the dismay that it will cause students, and the disruption to university life.

"Have the implications of this really been thought through fully, or is an overstretched Government taking decisions of massive proportions on the wing?"

Why have exams being cancelled?

The Government announced in March that schools would close indefinitely in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.

The shutdown also means GSCEs and A-Level exams will not go ahead, due to the risk it poses to students, teachers and other staff members.

It is the first nationwide school shutdown in modern history.

The only similar move was when schools in London shut as pupils were evacuated at the start of World War Two.

What is the government advice for students and parents?

The government says that if you have symptoms of Covid-19, however mild, you should not leave your home for seven days from when your symptoms started.

Parents have been home schooling their children, and teachers have been using distance learning strategies to keep kids learning.

On April 3 Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden revealed that the government had worked with the BBC on a new education programme to be broadcast across the nation during the crisis.

Fourteen weeks of education programmes will go out to every household in the land thanks to the partnership, which will help kids to learn for the next term.

Current advice from the government states that if you live alone and notice the main symptoms of Covid-19, however mild, you should self-isolate for seven days.

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