Arrangements for Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals students not certificating in summer 2021

Where your students are part way through their course and would have been taking assessments this summer, they can be given unit level teacher assessed grades for the units that they would have done. 

Information about the process can be found in the exams officers area:

• Arrangements for unit level teacher assessed grades in autumn 2021
• How do I use the OCR Grade Submission System?

Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals

What are the arrangements for Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals students who are not certificating in summer 2021 eg Year 9/10/12 students (Years 10/11/13 in Northern Ireland)?

Where your students are part way through their course and would have been doing assessments in 2020/21, they can be given unit level teacher assessed grades (TAGs) for the units that they would have done. 

When will I need to give you teacher assessed grades for my non-certificating students?

We will ask you to submit your unit level teacher assessed grades for your non-certificating students in the autumn term 2021. The window for submitting unit level teacher assessed grades is 27 September to 8 October 2021. 

Why are you asking us to submit the unit level teacher assessed grades in the autumn?

Based on feedback from centres, we decided to ask you to submit them in the autumn term so that teachers have some flexibility and time to focus on the grades for certificating students. It also means teaching and learning for your Year 10 and 12 students (Years 11 and 13 in Northern Ireland) can carry on as long as possible up to the end of the summer term in this school year.

How do we determine our unit level teacher assessed grades?

Your grades should be determined following a similar process to that for qualification level grades.  Please see our step by step guidance on how to determine the grades, including guidance on unit level grades, here. 

Even though these grades will be collected later, you must only base them on work that students did up to 31 August 2021. 

What if I have no evidence for one of the units for a non-certificating candidate?

You can still give a unit level teacher assessed grade for a unit where you don’t have direct evidence, as long as you have some evidence from another unit or units in the qualification. You can use evidence from across the qualification to determine a unit level teacher assessed grade, though where you have evidence relating to the unit in question, you should include that in your consideration.

More guidance on the evidence you can use to determine the grades is given here.

Cambridge Nationals only

We teach Cambridge Nationals over two years, and we do internal assessments for some of the moderated units at the end of Year 10 (Year 11 in Northern Ireland) but we don’t submit them to OCR for moderation until the following year. Can we give teacher assessed grades for those units?

Yes. You can give your students teacher assessed grades for those units because you had planned that your students would have been doing the work for the assessments before the 31 August 2021, even if you would not have planned to mark it or send it to OCR until later. 

If your students are not currently entered for the units this summer, you will need to enter them so that we know that you want to give them a teacher assessed grade. You can make them between 28 June and 30 July without being charged late entry fees.

We teach Cambridge Nationals in the same way as GCSEs. We teach all the course content first and then students sit the exam and complete the moderated assessments for all units at the end of the course, in Year 11 (Year 12 in Northern Ireland). Can my Year 10 (Year 11 in Northern Ireland) students be given teacher assessed grades?

Your students wouldn’t have been doing their assessments this academic year, so they are not eligible for unit level teacher assessed grades this summer or in the autumn. We understand that their learning has also been disrupted and arrangements for 2021/22 can be found here.

Will the unit teacher assessed grades count as one of the two attempts for examined units?

Cambridge Technicals only

We teach Cambridge Technicals over two years, and we do internal assessments for some of the moderated units at the end of Year 12 (Year 13 in Northern Ireland) but we don’t submit them to OCR for moderation until the following year. Can we give teacher assessed grades for those units?

Yes. You can give your students teacher assessed grades for those units because you had planned that your students would have been doing the work for the assessments before the 31 August 2021, even if you would not have planned to mark it or send it to OCR until later. In the autumn, you will need to submit unit level teacher assessed grades for those students. 

We complete a Cambridge Technical Extended Certificate in the first year and then we top it up to the Cambridge Technical Diploma in Year 13 (Year 14 in Northern Ireland). What do these arrangements mean for my students?

Your students are certificating for the smaller qualification and then going on to use the units towards the larger qualification:

• We will ask you to submit a qualification level teacher assessed grade for the smaller qualification by 18 June so that they can be awarded their qualification grade in summer 2021.
• We will then ask you submit unit level teacher assessed grades in the autumn term for the larger qualification (when unit level teacher assessed grades are submitted for other non-certificating students). This will enable us to issue unit level grades which can then be used towards the larger qualification. As for all the unit level teacher assessed grades submitted in the autumn, grades must only be based on work that students did up to 31 August 2021.

Will the unit teacher assessed grades count as one of the attempts for examined units?

January 2021 (Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals)

My students took units in January 2021. The Ofqual consultation outcomes confirm they may be given teacher assessed grades for those units, if they think the disruption impacted their performance. They are certificating in June 2022. How will this work?

• For Cambridge Nationals, you will need to make an entry in June 2021 for any 'resit' units you wish to provide a teacher assessed grade for. You can make these between 28 June and 30 July without being charged late entry fees.
• For Cambridge Technicals, please make test unit entries for any examined units you intended to 'resit'. No late fees apply to test unit entries for June 2021.

We will then ask you to submit the unit level teacher assessed grades for these units in the autumn term (when unit level teacher assessed grades are submitted for non-certificating candidates from the June 2021 series).

My students were due to take units in January 2021 but they couldn’t because of Covid. The Ofqual consultation outcomes confirm that they may be given teacher assessed grades for those units. They are certificating in June 2022. How will this work?

• For Cambridge Nationals, you will need to make an entry in June 2021 for these units. You can make these between 28 June and 30 July without being charged late entry fees.
• For Cambridge Technicals, please make test unit entries for June 2021 for any examined units you intended to take in January 2021 that were withdrawn (by marking them as absent).  No late fees apply to test unit entries for June 2021.

We will then ask you to submit the unit level teacher assessed grades for these units in the autumn term (when unit level teacher assessed grades are submitted for non-certificating candidates from the June 2021 series).