A Level Appeals Process 2021

THE EXTERNAL APPEAL PROCESS - QUESTIONING YOUR A LEVEL GRADES

Please note – any student appealing must bear in mind this truth: When you appeal, you take the risk that your grade can go down. You have to be very confident that it could not go down before appealing – this is particularly true when appealing at Stage 2. This document may help you decide.

STAGE 1 CENTRE REVIEW APPEALS

The student discusses the issue on Results’ Day with staff.

If the student would like reassurance that the school has followed all its procedural and administrative responsibilities, then the student appeals for ‘A Centre Review’ (Stage 1). Examples of procedural issues may include: mitigating circumstances at the time of an assessment were not taken into account, or access arrangements/reasonable adjustments for an assessment were not taken into account. We will advise you on Results’ Day.

During the Centre Review, we will check that no administrative or procedural error has been made with regard to the results, but we are not allowed to review the academic judgements made.

Please note - even where the school agrees that there has been a procedural failure or administrative error, it may not impact on the grade; as the Government has directed, ‘the centre needs to decide whether this affected the grade submitted to the awarding organisation’.

Centre Review Appeals do not look at academic judgement – that is in Stage 2 below, but you must complete Stage 1 to get to Stage 2.

To proceed with a Stage 1 Appeal please download the Stage One Appeals Form. SECTION ONE ONLY should be filled in electronically and then the whole form should be sent by email to: appeals@tggsacademy.org.

For PRIORITY APPEALS this must be done by 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, 11th August. Please ensure that the subject of your email is: "Priority Stage 1 Appeal [your full name] [the subject you’re appealing] A Level". You can find a list of relevant Exam Boards HERE.

We will then review your appeal and respond no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, 13th August. The response will be added to your submitted appeals form (in section two of the document) and returned to you via email. You can then decide whether to proceed with a Stage 2 Exam Board Appeal. If you decide to proceed you must submit the form (which will be emailed to you with our Stage One response) by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, 16th August, for Priority Appeals.

A priority appeal is only for students applying to higher education who did not attain their firm choice (i.e. the offer they accepted as their first choice) and wish to appeal an A level. You should inform your intended higher education provider that you have requested a centre review or appeal.

For NON-PRIORITY APPEALS, i.e. students who were happy in terms of getting into university, but still want to investigate a result/s they were awarded, we will be dealing with these appeals in September. Please submit the Stage One Appeals Form (Section One only) to: appeals@tggsacademy.org by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, 30th August. The subject of your email should be "Stage 1 Appeal [your full name] [the subject you’re appealing] A Level". You can find a list of relevant Exam Boards HERE.

We will then review your appeal and respond no later than 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday 8th September. The response will be added to your submitted appeals form (in section two of the document) and returned to you via email. You can then decide whether to proceed with a Stage 2 Exam Board Appeal. If you decide to proceed you must submit the form (which will be sent with our response to Stage One) by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, 10th September.

Important things to note:

You must regularly check your school e-mail - All communication with you about appeals will use the school e-mail system. This will still work even if you have left TGGS, but students must check it regularly please.

The only appeals that the school will process in the Summer holidays are those students in Year 13 who have missed out on their first-choice university (‘priority’ appeals).

IF STAGE 2 APPEALS ARE NOT SUCCESSFUL

There will be examinations in the Autumn for all A Level subjects. We have been told that these will be in a standard format and no adaptations will be made other than reasonable adjustments for eligible students. All subjects will be assessed by examination except Art & Design which will be assessed by a task set and marked by the examination board. Your grade will be determined by your performance on this task. The examinations will assess you in the same way as had been planned for examinations in summer 2021.

If you get a higher grade in your autumn examination than you get this summer, then you can ask the exam board to provide a new certificate showing your higher grade. Thus, you keep the higher grade only.