Exam Information

Update on Summer 2020 Exams:

Following the cancellation of exams this summer, the JCQ have published an infographic which outlines the three phases in this year’s awarding system. This can be found by clicking on the following link:

https://www.jcq.org.uk/media-centre/jcq-videos/

Results days will be held in school on the published dates and arrangements for these will be emailed to students and parents by the end of term (17th July 2020).

Following Ofqual guidance, exam boards have recently confirmed that they will be offering all of the UK regulated GCSE and A Level qualifications that were available in Summer 2020 in an exceptional Autumn series. With the exception of Art and Design, grades will be based on exam performance alone, with no non-exam assessment (NEA). Although timetables are still being finalised, exam boards are aiming for AS and A levels to be held in October and GCSEs in November. Only candidates entered for the summer 2020 series of exams will be eligible to enter exams in this exceptional Autumn series. It is hoped that further information about this Autumn exam series will be available by the results days.

Results Day Summer 2020 Message and Further Information:

We hope you that are all continuing to keep well, even though we are sure that the last month or so will have seemed very strange given that it should have been a time of examinations and end-of-year celebrations.

Obviously, this year’s event will look and feel very different to normal, with grades received coming from a national statistical process rather than the endeavours of students preparing for and taking examinations. We would like to hold Results Day in school so that we can directly support students and parents as much as possible, especially given the circumstances. As with all walks of life currently though, we will need to manage the day within current guidelines around numbers of students allowed in the building at any one time and necessary social distancing practice. Hence thank you in advance for your understanding of our need to ‘manage’ the day and restrict what happens much more than we would normally like to do.

Results will be available for collection from the Upper School Main Hall. This is at specified times organised by student’s last name from 08:30am onwards (see below). We are asking that if students wish to be accompanied by a parent/carer that this is limited to one other person. If you cannot collect your results in person, you can either nominate someone else to collect your results on your behalf, or we can post your results home. Either option must be requested in writing by you, the student by email to the Exams Office  ( Mrs Passey, rpy@knutsfordacademy.org.uk) at least one week prior to results day. We are sorry but results cannot be given out over the telephone or via email in any circumstances.

Year 13 Results Day – Thursday 13th August 2020

Collection times as follows:

Mrs Kirkham, Miss Hawkins and Mrs Taylor will be in school on Thursday 13th August to assist students who need guidance and advice about contacting universities and colleges, clearing etc. Please remember to consider the following:

• Do not assume you have lost your place if your grades are below the conditional offer. You will need to check with your chosen institution as soon as possible – the quicker you know, the sooner you can begin, if necessary, to make alternative arrangements
• Be proactive – it is your future, your education; you need to get on the telephone, internet, etc. to keep yourself informed with where your application is up to. For urgent cases, internet facilities will be made available within school

Year 11 Results Day – Thursday 20th August 2020

Collection times as follows:

Following collection of results, members of staff from each faculty area will be in school on Thursday 20th August to assist students in enrolling for the courses they have chosen to study in the Sixth Form.

Further Results Information

• Of course, an added factor for consideration this year is the prospect of the Autumn GCSE and A-Level examination series being provided for current Year 11 and 13 students. We are well aware that this is something that students and parents may want to discuss in further detail too. It is a complex consideration, with the potential benefits in terms of improved grades needing to be balanced against potential costs in terms of the impact of the necessary time that would be taken when a new stage of education or employment may have been started (and also financial, as the exam boards have not yet informed us of the entry fees which will be charged). We do know that any entries for A Level examinations must be made by the 4^th September and for GCSE examinations by 18th September, but we will provide full details about entries on results day when we have received more information from the examination boards.
• One aspect of results that is often contemplated on Results Day is whether or not to submit a request for a re-mark or ‘appeal’ the result. Due to the exceptional circumstances, there are no re-marks possible – as there is no examination script and this year’s appeals process is limited to where an administrative error by either the school or the examination board is felt to have been made.

On receiving your results you can in specific circumstances ‘request a review’ of the result, please click on the link for further details with the criteria.

Click here for further details on ‘Request a Review’ of an exam result.

We are very much looking forward to seeing our Year 11 & 13 students again in August but in the meantime hope they all have a very enjoyable and relaxing summer with their families and friends.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all every success in these examinations and beyond.

Key Documents and Information

Key documents can be found below, including timetables for forthcoming exams and ‘Information for Candidates’ guides which must be read by all students as part of their preparation for exams/controlled assessments etc. When appropriate, other documents relating to results day arrangements and post results services will also be included in the documents below

Other useful documents can be found in this section including a document relating to each main area of learning in the school. Each of these documents contains information about the courses/specifications that are delivered and has links to the appropriate examination board webpages.