Exams

The Exams Office is open 8.30 am to 3.30 pm during term time.

IMPORTANT: New arrangements for the awarding of GCSE and ‘A’ level grades for 2020 are being published by Ofqual.

Ofqual has published a letter to students (3rd April 2020) which can be downloaded here.

Ofqual has released further guidance for students about their exam results: Your Results, what next? which can be viewed here.

The DfE has published a booklet: Student Guide to post-16 qualifications results – Summer 2020 which can be downloaded here.

Ofqual has also released an infographic and a video for students and parents to explain the awarding process for GCSE and ‘A’ level qualifications this year.

In July 2020, Ofqual released a second, more detailed explanation of the process of awarding GCSE and ‘A” level grades.

Results Days: 2020  –  Provisional Arrangements

Students may request to receive their exam results by post. To do this, they should hand in a stamped, addressed envelope to the school Receptionist during school hours. Ofqual regulations stipulate that results can only posted after 8.00 am on the relevant Results Day at the earliest.

In the event of a further lock-down being imposed locally or nationally, candidates results may be emailed to their school accounts, after 8.00 am on the relevant Results Day.

Results should be collected by the candidate. If this is not possible, the student may request delivery by post (see above) or nominate a proxy to collect their results on their behalf. For this to be possible, the student must write a letter to this effect, naming their proxy, who must be able to provide photographic I.D. A phone conversation on the day will not suffice, due to social distancing restrictions.

If a student and their family is self-isolating and unable to come onto the school site, the student should email the Exams Office (in advance if at all possible) at: exams@beaumont.school and arrangements will be put in place to email the results to them as soon as possible on or after the Results Day.  Please note that exam results are only permitted to be emailed to a candidate’s school email address.

‘A’ level Results Day:  Thursday 13th August 2020

Results will be issued between 8.00 and 9.00 am at three locations across the school site to maximise social distancing: the Assembly Hall, C1/C2 and the Gym. Students will be informed about which location to go to and the site entrance to use via signage on the day and information sent to students via their school email accounts.

GCSE Results Day: Thursday 20th August 2020

Results will be issued between 9.00 and 10.00 am at three locations across the school site to maximise social distancing: the Assembly Hall, C1/C2 and the Gym. Students will be informed about which location to go to and the site entrance to use via signage on the day and information sent to students via their school email accounts.

Please note: Students taking qualifications “out of year” will receive their results by a separate process, to maximise social distancing between Year Groups. They will be contacted by the Exams Office individually.

Centre Assessed Grades

Schools were asked to send exam boards two pieces of information for each of their subjects, based on their knowledge of each student’s work and achievements:

1. the grade they believed they were most likely to get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned within each subject;
2. the order of students at the school, by performance, for each grade; this information will be used to standardise judgements – allowing fine tuning of the standard applied across schools and colleges.

We were asked to consider a range of things, like students’ classwork and homework, students’ results in assignments and any mock exams, any non-exam assessment or coursework students might have done, alongside students’ general progress during their courses.

This information will allow Ofqual, with exam boards, to standardise grades across schools and colleges, to make sure that, as far as possible, results are fair and that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged because their schools or colleges are more generous or harsh than others when making those judgements. This means the final grade students get could be different from the ones we sent to the exam board.

A document detailing the procedures carried out in creating Centre Assessment Grades can be found here.

It will be possible for students to find out their Centre Assessed Grades once official results are issued in August 2020. Details for this process will be published shortly.

Appeals

Please note that in most cases, there is not an option for individual students to appeal directly to the exam board. Any appeal has to be evidence based and, in almost all cases, submitted by the school. Should you have any queries, following the publication of results, please contact the Exams Office in the first instance. Please note, we may not be able to respond immediately on the Results Day. Individual subject teachers will not be able to address your queries.

Herts for Learning has produced a flow-chart which explains what students may do if they are not happy with their exam results.

Results Day Support

Staff, including members of the Leadership Team, Heads of Department and Pastoral Leaders are typically available on GCSE and ‘A’ level Results Days to support and advise students. Our YC Hertfordshire Personal Adviser is also available on GCSE Results Day. Please be aware that staff will only be available at the times published to students and parents and the school switchboard is not operated during the Summer Holidays.

The DfE has published guidance for choices at 16+, which can be read here.

The DfE has published guidance for choices at 18+, which can be read here.

The National Careers Service operates an Exam Results Helpline between 16th and 30th of August, 7 days a week, from 8.00 am to 10.00 pm. on 0800 100 900. Their team of personal advisers can offers free, impartial and confidential support to students and their parents in all areas regarding exams (re-sits, re-marks,&c), university, Apprenticeships, Gap Years, student finance, &c.

The Exams Office can be contacted by email via exams@beaumont.school and by telephone at 01727 732923 (with answer-phone).