(Exams officers) What do I need to know about Functional Skills entries and submissions?

For all those candidates who were expecting to complete assessments between 20 March and 31 July 2020, we will work with you to provide a calculated result.

The window for generating and submitting centre assessment grades for Functional Skills is from 15 June to 6 July. Results will be available Thursday 20 August.

The teacher/tutor will need to download a:

• Supporting information form (including a Head of Centre declaration)
• Centre assessment grade submission form (examined)
• Centre assessment grade submission form (moderated)

The guidance for teachers/tutors on generating grades is available here. 

Make entries

You will need a valid entry for all candidates your teachers/tutors have identified as a Pass and eligible for a centre assessment grade. The entry needs to be in place before submitting your centre assessment grade to OCR. New entries (if required) can be made from 15 June until 6 July:

• Legacy English, Maths and ICT - Entries should be made on Interchange. If you have unused entries (named or unnamed), you can skip this step.
• Reformed English and Maths - You need to make a qualification entry (booking) for each candidate via our secure website for Functional Skills. If the candidate already has a reformed qualification entry, you can skip this step.
• Legacy Functional Skills on-screen testing (Level 1 and 2 examined components only) - If your centre usually uses on-screen testing on OCR Surpass, you can skip this step, further instructions are available here.

The teacher/tutor should complete the Functional Skills supporting information form and centre assessment grade submission form(s).

We need:

• One Functional Skills supporting information form per centre,
• One centre assessment grade submission form for all examined components (including both 'Pass' and 'Fail' candidates)
• One centre assessment grade submission form for all moderated components with 'Pass' candidates only.

Send to your Head of Centre

Send the completed Functional Skills supporting information form and centre assessment grade submission forms to your Head of Centre for sign-off.

A Head of Centre declaration is included on the supporting information form and must be signed by the Head of Centre before submitting the centre assessment grades to OCR. 

Before you can submit your centre assessment grades, evidence and Head of Centre declaration to OCR, depending on your entries, you need to do the following: 

• Make claims for moderated components (All Entry Level and Level 1/2 Speaking, Listening and Communicating/Communication: We need you to make a claim for moderated components for all candidates identified as a pass in the usual way.
  • For Legacy English, Maths and ICT moderated, make a single claim per component on Interchange. Please make a note of the batch number.
  • For Reformed English and Maths moderated, create a single moderation form on our Secure Website for Functional Skills. Please make a note of the form number.

• Create an attendance list for legacy examined components: Create a single on-demand attendance list per component for all candidates you have identified as a pass. Use today's date as the 'date attended'. Please make a note of the reference number
• Create a test session for reformed examined components: Instructions are available on the secure website homepage or here.
• Schedule an on-screen test for legacy examined components – If you usually conduct legacy on-screen tests - further guidance is available here.

Once you have made your claims, completed your attendance list or scheduled tests, please email the claim and/or reference numbers with your Functional Skills supporting information form and centre assessment grade submission forms to vqprocessing@ocr.org.uk. 

Your email should include:

• Centre number
• Completed supporting information form, signed by Head of Centre attached
• Centre assessment grade submission forms attached

Depending on the type of Functional Skills, please also include on your email:

• The Interchange claim numbers for any legacy moderated components.
• The Interchange attendance list reference number for any legacy examined components
• The form reference (F/OCR/xxxx) for reformed moderated components
• The booking reference (B/OCR/xxxx) for reformed examined components 

If you usually use on-screen testing for legacy (so you have not used Interchange for that component), please indicate this on your email.