Update on submitting grades, supporting learners with special educational needs and university applications – 11 June 2020

11 Jun 2020

The main focus of this update is on supporting schools with submitting predicted grades and rank orders.

Many schools have now submitted their predicted grades and rank orders to us. As you know, our Grade Submission System closes on 16 June and no submissions can be made after that date. If you need help to complete your submission by this date, we are providing a range of support for centres. You can find out more about it in this update.

Today’s update also contains details of new information on our support pages, FAQs and university applications.

We will send our next update to schools on 17 June 2020.

Submitting grades and rank orders

• The Grade Submission System is now open for you to submit predicted grades and rank orders. The system is open until 16 June (22:59 UTC). You can access the system at www.cambridgeinternational.org/submitgrades
  The timeline for awarding grades in the June 2020 series is here.
• We recommend that you submit grades and rank orders as soon as possible, and that you allow enough time for your head of centre to check, approve and submit grades and rank orders to us before the system closes. You will not be able to submit grades and rank orders after 16 June, so any students you have not graded or ranked will not receive a grade for that syllabus.
• Please make sure you check predicted grades and rank orders carefully before you submit them. Once your head of centre has approved the grades and submitted them to us, you will not be able to make any changes.
  
• If you do not think you have enough evidence to allocate a student a predicted grade, you should withdraw them from the series by allocating them an ‘X’ grade within the system. If you do this, you will receive a credit for that candidate’s entry. You can find out more about how to do this on our website.
• If you want to check whether you have enough evidence for a candidate, check our guidance or contact us.

Support for using the Grade Submission System

We offer a lot of support to help you use the Grade Submission System on our website, including:

• A walk-through video
• A step-by-step online guide
• A support webinar recording
• FAQs.

We will send reminders to schools that have not yet submitted predicted grades and rank orders on 10 and 15 June. If you have submitted your predicted grades shortly before these dates and you receive the reminder email, do not worry. There may be a delay between you submitting your data and us running the report we use to identify relevant schools.

Evidence

If we need to ask you to submit your evidence, we will do so by 22 June. If we contact you about this, we will provide detailed guidance about what you need to do and the deadline for sending us evidence.

Please make sure you check your school email so you do not miss any communications from us.

Please do not send us evidence unless we contact you. You can find information about collating appropriate evidence in the ‘Awarding grades for the June 2020 series’ section of our website.

We may also contact some schools after 22 June, in cases of suspected malpractice. As mentioned above, if you do not feel that you have enough evidence for a candidate, do not allocate them a grade. Instead, enter a grade X for that candidate on the Grade Submission System and withdraw them from the series. If you do this, you will receive a credit for that candidate’s entry. You can find out more about this on our website.

Support for schools – supporting learners with special educational needs

We have added two new pre-recorded webinars to support learners with special educational needs to the ‘Teaching and learning when school is closed’ part of our website. The recordings offer practical strategies and approaches that are relevant both to students with and without special educational needs, and to remote and physical learning environments:

• Supporting learners with special educational needs when school is closed: A conversation with Cambridge teachers
  In this recording, four Cambridge teachers talk about their strategies for effectively supporting learners with special educational needs while school is closed. They openly share the challenges they have overcome and the successes they have enjoyed. Their approaches are based on inclusive design principles and an acknowledgement that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference.
• Supporting learners with special educational needs online: A conversation with Abby Osborne, Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of Bath
  This recording offers ideas on how to best support students with special educational needs while they are learning remotely. Abby shows how these ideas can ensure all learners’ needs are considered, describing how inclusive design is the most effective way to foster learners’ independence and confidence. She also talks about incorporating successful remote learning strategies into the physical learning environment.

The Cambridge International blog also has this post from Professor Amanda Kirby on the opportunities that remote learning creates for learners with additional needs. The post also mentions a number of tools and resources available.

Training and professional development

After careful consideration, we have taken the decision to cancel face-to-face training workshops until February 2021. Our priority is always the safety and wellbeing of staff and students at Cambridge schools and our trainers.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely and although we are unable to provide face-to-face training at this time, we have increased our range of online courses available. We will be offering more online introductory, extension and marking workshops over the coming months. Please keep checking our events and training calendar for the latest information.

Cambridge Schools Conferences

We have also taken the decision to cancel our planned Cambridge Schools Conferences for September and December 2020. As you may know, we run three global conferences every year, in different locations around the world. As with our training, we will continue to monitor the situation closely. Our Cambridge Schools Conferences are very popular events and we are very much looking forward to meeting again face-to-face at our next planned global conference in Orlando, USA in June 2021.

In the meantime, we are working on bringing elements of the Cambridge Schools Conferences to you virtually. More details are to follow in July.

Updates to our FAQs

Our updated FAQs are here. Below are some of the key updates:

What are your plans for the November 2020 exam series?

We plan to run exams in the November 2020 series. We have added additional syllabuses for the November 2020 series only. See our website for more information.

What are the key dates for making entries for the November 2020 series?

You can find information on the key dates for the November 2020 series here. This includes information on late entries deadlines, modified paper deadlines and access arrangement deadlines.

If one of our candidates is unhappy with their June 2020 result, can they retake the syllabus in November 2020?

Yes, candidates can retake a syllabus in November 2020, if that syllabus is available in the November series. You can find a list of syllabuses we have added to the November 2020 series on our website.

We are offering a discount for retake entries in the November series. To receive this discount, please make sure you tick the ‘retake’ box when you make your entry.

We anticipate that some candidates may move from one school to another because of the disruption caused by Covid-19. If your school accepts a new student for November 2020, please check if they are retaking the syllabus from June 2020. Remember to tick the ‘retake’ box to receive the discounted rate for the candidate.

We are aware that this ‘retake’ box is not available to schools in the UK. We are working to find a solution for UK schools that will ensure they also receive the discount on retakes entered in the November 2020 series.

When will you publish details about Step 4, the standardisation process?

We plan to publish more about our statistical standardisation in the week beginning 22 June.

University applications

We are working with universities around the world to ensure progression into higher education for students entered for the June 2020 series. We are adding the statements of support we receive from universities to our website.

This week we want to highlight a new statement of support from Monash University in Australia, which includes details of their admissions policy for the second half of 2020 for Cambridge International students. Monash has confirmed that they will accept Cambridge International students applying with school predicted grades for direct entry into their second semester courses starting in July.

The statement also confirms that Monash University ‘will accept GCE A Level grades issued by Cambridge International for the May/June 2020 series for assessment and consideration in the same manner as those from other series’.

Staying in touch

You can find advice on our Covid-19 web page. If you have any questions, you can review our frequently asked questions, or contact us via www.cambridgeinternational.org/help

We will update schools again on 17 June. We wish everyone in the Cambridge International community well at this difficult time.