The final days of the Spring Term 2021 have brought the arrival of a significant amount of guidance from all of the bodies which are involved in secondary assessment - the examining boards, OfQual and (especially) JCQ, the Joint Council for Qualifications. We now have a clearer picture of both the processes within school and the evidence needed to back up the allocation of grades for candidates at the end of their GCSE and A level courses. In actual fact the assessment and evidence gathering procedures which have been proposed by our Heads of Departments are sensible and fit for purpose - as well as humane. Given the circumstances of this year (and the last), it is in no-one's interests for our students to feel under the assessment kosh, but equally we do need to ensure that we are able to gather the evidence needed to show the standards at which they are working in a fair and equitable way. What still has to be made clear nationally is the QA processes that will be operated by the exam boards. This will appear next week
Meanwhile the last couple of weeks have been increasingly busy. We have had some great results from the science olympiads, the Sports Hall has seen rapid turnarounds between testing, sport and now Year 10 exams, prefect selection is under way and last week there was a flurry of excitement around the virtual Rosslyn Park Sevens on twitter. For some obscure reason this competition seemed to be characterised by pictures of kittens as well as rugby balls...but bizarreness aside, we won the U16 polls, finished as runners up in the U18 womens' voting and bowed out as losing quarter finalists in the mens' U18 battle. All good fun - but it will be much better to see the resumption of Rugby in due course.
On a similar theme there are clear signs of the thaw of lockdown now. DfE guidance now states that outdoor sports fixtures can resume from the end of March, though we await the pronouncements of the national governing bodies in each sport. The first day walk for Year 8 (to compensate for the loss of Great Yews last summer) took place last week too, with James Oldham taking 8J out into the wilds of the Longford Estate in some glorious spring weather.
A progamme of BWS Adventure walks and a full DofE programme awaits as the summer unfolds, and it has been fantastic to be able to work with David Canty and the Longford Estate to enable the junior walks to happen. The boys had a great time - a sign of things to come...
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