The process of awarding grades as stipulated by JCQ:
   1. subject teams consider what has been taught and what evidence they will ask 
      students to produce in order to support the awarding of a grade;
   2. Subject teams create an assessment record – a list of the pieces of evidence 
      students will produce (or have produced) that will be the basis for deciding upon a 
      TAG (assessment records for every subject are included later in this booklet);
   3. Students complete the work and teachers mark it.  Students are told the mark they 
      receive;
   4. Once all of the pieces of work have been completed, teachers compare them to a list 
      of grade descriptors in order to arrive at a ‘holistic’ judgement about which grade to 
      award.
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   5. This grade is released to students in August (10  August A level   12  August GCSE). 
       Teachers cannot share any information about your grade until this date. 
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                                                 https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-
                                                 content/uploads/2021/03/Summer-2021-
                                                 Grade-Descriptors-GCSE.pdf
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 Important points
 The evidence used should be consistent across the cohort – this means that you all 
 produce the same pieces of work for us to make a judgement.  Where there is a valid 
 reason that you have not completed a piece of work, we can ask you to complete a 
 comparable alternative to ensure that you have as much evidence as possible;
 All evidence in the assessment record will be used to judge your grade, but work 
 completed in controlled conditions will enable greater confidence that it is authentically 
 your own;
 We cannot use any other evidence – the assessment record created by subject teams is 
 “not negotiable”;
 For tiered GCSEs, your grade will reflect you tier of entry;
 Your teachers have to keep all of your work;
 We cannot consider your potential ability – we can only make grading decisions based 
 on the evidence you produce
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 Absent students
 After College weekly catch up sessions
 You will be invited to stay after College for up to an hour if you miss work that your 
 teacher will use as evidence to determine your TAG
 Your parents will receive a letter from the College to let them know when
 “the same range of evidence should be used for all students, although there may be 
 individual students for whom the proposed evidence is not appropriate… some 
 students may have missed a section of teaching due to valid reasons”
 In which case teachers can: “use alternative evidence to replace assessments”
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 The process of quality assurance and checking
   Subject teachers assess students’ work and, using quality assured materials, issue a 
   mark;
   Subject teams meet to moderate marking, ensuring consistent application of mark 
   scheme across all teachers;
   Teachers consider all of your work and use JCQ guidance to identify which descriptors you 
   have met and apply a grade;
   Subject teams work together to ensure that grade descriptors have been applied equally;
   Subject leads compare grades to historical trends and identify variations;
   CLT check accuracy and that all procedures have been followed; 
   Final grades checked for accuracy and submitted to exam boards via the exams CLT lead 
   and exams manager. 
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