I hope that you are all well, but I am assuming that last night’s announcement from the Prime Minister will have caused some concern for families of students who were due to sit public
examinations in the Summer of 2021.
We have had students and families contacting us asking if examinations are cancelled and what does that mean. School leaders were not given any prior notice of the content of the announcement and therefore we have been waiting for more detail to arrive. However, it is worth noting that the Prime Minister said the following, “We recognise that this will mean it is not possible or fair for all exams to go ahead this summer as normal. The Education Secretary will work with Ofqual to put in place alternative arrangements.”
This would suggest that there will be some form of formal assessment to replace public examinations and it is therefore very important that students in all year groups due to take examinations continue to access online education. It may be that these are more formal in some subjects than others.
We are continuing to provide a full timetable of lessons for the time being and therefore it continues to be very important that students access all their lessons.
There will be an announcement from Gavin Williamson, The Secretary of State for Education, following his discussions with Examinations regulators, regarding what form assessments will take soon. As soon as we have any updates, we will contact families to inform them of the changes and what they mean for students.
This is a time of rapid change for everyone. The best action that you can take at the moment is continuing to prepare for assessments, whatever form they take, and the best way to do this is to continue to access the live lessons that are being delivered by staff.
Kind regards,
Mr D Irish
Principal
