Sixth Form and Covid-19

Information that we already know.

Grades awarded will fairly reflect the work that students have put in.

There will also be an option to sit an exam early in the next academic year for students who wish to.

Ofqual will develop and set out a process that will provide a calculated grade to each student which reflects their performance as fairly as possible,

The exam boards will be asking teachers, who know their students well, to submit their judgement about the grade that they believe the student would have received if exams had gone ahead.

So far, the government have not provided much information on the precise methodology on how this will be calculated. However, they have said that it will take into account a range of evidence and data including, but not exclusively, performance on mock exams and non-exam assessment.

They also promise that clear guidance on how to do this fairly and robustly will be provided to schools and colleges in due course. The exam boards will then combine this information with other relevant data, including prior attainment, and use this information to produce a calculated grade for each student, which will be a best assessment of the work they have put in.

On Friday 20 March, the government announced further information regarding exams and grades. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/further-details-on-exams-and-grades-announced

Wellbeing and Safeguarding

Even in cases where staff and/or students are working from home, the school will be able to support students with their wellbeing or if there are any safeguarding concerns.

If a student is worried or concerned about their health or wellbeing, they should email: 5alert@nia.emat.uk

Any concerns will be passed onto the safeguarding team who will then make contact with students as quickly as possible to make sure that students get the support that they need.

As with any safeguarding concerns, if students feel that they are at significant risk and in need of immediate support, they must call 999 without delay.

Financial Support

There is uncertainty in how the impacts of COVID-19 and the government measures put into place may impact individual students and households within our communities.

The sixth form is able to provide financial support to those students in receipt of the 16-19 Bursary and/or those in receipt of free school meals.

If a student falls into either of these categories and is not currently receiving any financial support, please email: sixthform@nia.emat.uk

What does working from home mean for Year 12?

This means that students will:

• Access and complete the work set weekly
• Regularly submit work to their teacher
• Access support for work if needed
• Communicate with school if they are not fit for work (i.e. if they are so ill that they cannot complete the work set.)
• Continue to revise and prepare for exams as normal

The platform for all of this activity will be Edulink, which students can access using their school email address.

There are three main things that staff will be doing each week:

Setting work

There will be 5 hours of work set each week. All resources will be in a clearly labelled file on Edulink.

This will be uploaded by 9.00am each Monday from Monday 27 April.

Checking work

This is so that teachers can help to monitor whether the work set is being completed.

A deadline will be set at the start of the week for this work.

Students must upload something to Edulink by this checkpoint deadline.

Assignment task, set weekly:

This will be used to check the progress of students.

A deadline is set at the start of the week for this work.

Students must upload something to Edulink by the assignment deadline.

Teachers may choose to either mark the work or give feedback.

All work is set on Edulink, please use your NIA login to access the work set.