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  • Update for Cambridge schools - 24 September 2021

Update for Cambridge schools - 24 September 2021

24 Sep 2021

This week, we are sharing guidance for both schools running exams and schools using school-assessed grades in the November 2021 series.

If your school is running exams and using component exemptions, you can find out what you need to do, and when.

If your school is using school-assessed grades, you can find the latest guidance on our Quality Assurance process, a link to our latest FAQs, and a reminder about where to find all the information we have published so far.

You can also find out when we are planning to share the outcomes of the consultation we ran about our exam series in 2022.

November 2021: for schools running exams

This content is relevant to schools using exams for the November 2021 series. Most of our schools worldwide are following this route.

Component exemptions

If you have made final entries in the November 2021 series and have approved component exemptions (also known as Covid-19 exemptions), you will need to tell us which candidates you would like to exempt from which components. You will be able to submit these details via the 'Covid-19 Exemptions' area on Cambridge International Direct from 27 September until 10 October 2021 (at 23:59 UTC+1).  Support and guidance to help you do this will be available on the component exemptions pages of our website from 27 September.

Please note, the deadline for making entries and submitting your initial application for component exemptions has now passed.

November 2021: for schools using school-assessed grades

This section includes support for schools using school-assessed grades only. If your school is running exams for the November 2021 series, this information is not relevant to you, although you may choose to familiarise yourself with our approach. You can find the latest guidance on running exams on our website.

If your country or region is using school-assessed grades, you will have received a direct communication from us. The decision to move to school-assessed grades is taken when directives from local government mean that exams cannot take place. Schools do not make the decision to move to school-assessed grades themselves.

Our Quality Assurance process

Our Quality Assurance process allows us to check the accuracy of grades awarded by schools, and make sure there is confidence in the grades we award.

We encourage you to familiarise yourself with it now, so you can begin preparing to send us the information that we may ask for. We have published our process alongside the timelines for each stage, so you can see what we might ask for and when.

After schools have submitted their school-assessed grades to us, we will ask them initially to send us the evidence they have used to determine grades for a sample of candidates, plus the Rationale Document. We will ask to see this information for at least one syllabus.

Find the latest guidance and FAQs on our website

You can find all the guidance we have published so far about school-assessed grades on our website, along with answers to frequently asked questions about school-assessed grades.

2022 exam series

A huge thank you to all our schools who took part in the consultation we ran about our plans for 2022 exam series. We have received many responses. Your opinions are very valuable to us, and we are now using your feedback to plan our approach for exam series in the coming year.

We plan to share more information about this in our update next week. This announcement will be for the June & November series only, as we have already confirmed our plans for March 2022.

Stay in touch

View our latest updates on our Covid-19 information pages.

If you have any questions, you can review our frequently asked questions or contact us via the Help website. 

For British Council Partner Schools or Cambridge Associate schools, please contact your local British Council representative or Cambridge Associate.

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