Kirsty Williams, the Welsh Minister for Education, has announced today that there will be no end of year GCSE, AS or A Level exams next summer. Alternative arrangements will be put in place in order to award grades (details to follow from Welsh Government).
In summary however, it was announced by the minister that:
- Instead of exams, we intend to work with schools and colleges to take forward teacher-managed assessments.
- These should include assessments that will be externally set and marked, but delivered within a classroom environment under teacher supervision.
- My [Kirsty Williams] expectation is that these will form the basis for centre-based outcomes which will be linked to an agreed national approach to provide consistency across Wales.
The specific detail and guidance regarding the assessments proposed is not yet available to schools. Instead, a letter has been released that provides some insight into the decisions taken so far (this can be downloaded from the link, below). We appreciate that the news may create new, yet similar, anxieties and worries in place of those linked to ‘normal’ exams, especially with so much speculation arising from the announcement. As soon as MACS is able to do so, we will share any further official guidance and information that is released.