Government Announcement on 2021 UK Exams

Home Educated children did not stop learning or studying because of lockdown! For example AWE Home Ed went online right at the start of the first lockdown with students not even missing one single lesson for their UK Exams. We have not stopped teaching and our students have not stopped learning.

I hope our students exam grades will not be marked down when compared against school children who may have not been so prepared for self study and working at home.

I believe Home Educated children are actually at an advantage as learning at home and taking responsibility for their own learning are skills they will already have.

Our teachers and many parents have been able to accelerate through the syllabus to try to ensure the whole syllabus has been covered earlier in preparation for whatever scheme comes out of the consultation. Many Home Educated children will not have big chunks of the syllabus not covered. Many Home Ed teachers and tutors have been steadily gathering evidence during lessons and with homework so it should be easier than last year for parents to provide portfolio’s of evidence if required by exam centres and for teachers to give predicted grades if qualified to do so.

Just my thoughts!

09:50

UK Exams update for Private Candidates

My advice is don’t take too much notice of all the speculation, opinions and thoughts that are being aired everywhere. The good news is that Private Candidates will have a way to be graded, we have not been forgotten. It sounds like there will be flexibility and options available to make it fair.

Exams centres will be extremely busy and will probably not have all the answers you will be looking for yet. I would just be patient and wait for a few days until there is more detail and your exam centre has had the time to make a plan for Private Candidates.

09:20

Regarding private Candidates

I will keep updating this blog as news comes out with more details.

It’s probably not a good idea to contact your exam centre yet. They will be very busy! Wait a couple of days until they have time to tell us what they will be able to arrange for our children sitting as Private Candidates.

08:00am

Boris Johnson announced today by Tweet that Teachers will be assessing grades for students. There is a Government press release with some detail which does mention private candidates, quoted here:

There will also be a clear and accessible route for private candidates to work with a centre to receive a grade this year, at the same time as other candidates. Exam boards will provide centres with clear guidance on the evidence they can use to assess a private candidate. A list of available centres will be published shortly and, we are working with the sector to ensure there are sufficient centres available and at a similar cost to a normal year.

More detail to follow as it is released.