CURRENT UPDATE: Confirmation on Results Date, Friday 28th August 2020. The College Exam's Team will send an email to all students awaiting revised results.
Pearsons Statement: Cindy Rampersaud, Senior Vice President, BTEC and Apprenticeships...
Let me start by apologising again for the timing of the update we shared with you on Wednesday about our decision to review BTEC grading for our BTEC Level 1/2, Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications. I know this placed an additional burden on you and your teams at an already very busy time, as well as further worry for your students. Please accept my sincere apologies for this.
As I mentioned then, we took this difficult decision in the interests of BTEC learners and to ensure fairness for them following Ofqual’s decision to award centre assessment grades for A levels and GCSEs. Our priorities are to deliver fair outcomes for BTEC students in relation to A levels and GCSEs and to ensure that no student is disadvantaged.
As a reminder, the following BTECs are being reviewed and regraded where appropriate:
- BTEC Level 3 Nationals (2010 QCF and 2016 RQF)
- BTEC Level 1/2 Tech Awards
- BTEC Level 2 Technicals
- BTEC Level 1/2 Firsts.
We promised to share an update with you as soon as we could on timings for the release of revised grades and I am now able to confirm that all eligible results will be available by August 28. We are reviewing results at Level 3, including those with UCAS requirements, as an absolute priority and will start releasing those to schools/colleges from August 25.
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PREVIOUS UPDATE: Colleges have been told not to issue BTEC results today (Thursday 20th August) after an eleventh-hour grading U-turn from Pearson.
Following Ofqual’s announcement that A-Level and GCSE students are to receive Centre Assessed Grades, Pearson have reviewed the impact on BTEC students and have decided to apply this same principle to students receiving BTECs this summer.
Pearson has asked colleges not to issue Level 1 and 2 BTECs on results day (Aug 20th) as they are now being regraded, along with the Level 3 nationals.
Waltham Forest College acknowledges the concern with the timing, as many of its students were due to get their results on results day, while others have already received theirs.
The College remains hopeful for this to be sorted soon so that students have the chance to celebrate and to plan their next steps. Waltham Forest College would like to encourage students to contact the College if they need any help or support during this time, and that all students can still enrol at the College.
Further information can be found here and you can contact Pearson support here.
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Urgent statement from Pearson regarding BTECs - Full Announcement
Following Ofqual’s announcement that A Level and GCSE students are to receive Centre Assessment Grades, we have reviewed the impact on BTEC students and taken on board feedback from teachers, schools and colleges. Following our review and your feedback we have decided to apply Ofqual’s principles for students receiving BTECs this summer.
This means we will now be regarding all the following BTECs - BTEC Level 3 Nationals (2010 QCF and 2016 RQF), BTEC Level 1/2 Tech Awards, BTEC Level 2 Technicals and BTEC Level 1/2 Firsts.
BTEC qualification results have been generally consistent with teacher and learner expectations, but we have become concerned about unfairness in relation to what are now significantly higher outcomes for GCSE and A Levels.
Although we generally accepted Centre Assessment Grades for internal (i.e. coursework) units, we subsequently calculated the grades for the examined units using historical performance data with a view of maintaining overall outcomes over time. Our review will remove these calculated grades and apply consistency across teacher assessed internal grades and examined grades that students were unable to sit.
We will work urgently with you to reissue these grades and will update you as soon as we possibly can. We want to reassure students that no grades will go down as part of this review.
We appreciate this will cause additional uncertainty for students and we are sorry about this. Our priority is to ensure fair outcomes for BTEC students in relation to A Levels and GCSEs and that no BTEC student is disadvantaged.
Therefore, we ask schools and colleges not to issue any BTEC L1 and L2 results tomorrow as these will be reviewed and where appropriate, regraded.
We will share more information as soon as we can. Please contact us if you have any questions. We thank you in advance for your understanding and patience.