(Exams Officers) Arrangements for unit level teacher assessed grades in autumn 2021

Where your students were part way through their course in 2020/21 and would have taken assessments that year, they can be given unit level teacher assessed grades for the units that they would have done. 

Based on feedback from centres, we decided to ask you to submit them in the autumn 2021 term so that teachers had some flexibility and time to focus on the grades for certificating students in summer 2021. It also meant teaching and learning for your Year 10 and 12 students in 2020/21 (Years 11 and 13 in Northern Ireland) could carry on as long as possible up to the end of the summer term.

Process for submitting unit level teacher assessed grades (TAGs)

• For Cambridge Technicals only, tell us which moderated units you will be submitting teacher assessed grades for by 16 September 2021.
• The window for submitting unit level teacher assessed grades for both Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals is 27 September to 8 October 2021. 
• Unit level teacher assessed grades will be collected using our Grade Submission System.
• The guidance on how to determine a unit level teacher assessed grade and what evidence to use is the same guidance used for summer 2021. We have updated the guidance to put it in the context of unit TAGs and included additional examples of determining unit level teacher assessed grades. We have also made it relevant to the unit level grades process, such as removing references to qualification level grades.
• The evidence used to determine the unit TAG must have been produced before 31 August 2021.
• You will need to review the JCQ centre policy submitted for qualification level TAGs to check it is still relevant to what you are doing for your unit level TAGs and update the policy if necessary. You do not need to send it to us unless we contact you.
• If you did not take part in the summer 2021 teacher assessed grade process and so did not complete a centre policy, we'll be in contact with you.

Using the Grade Submission System for unit level teacher assessed grades

The link to the system is www.gradecapture.ocr.org.uk

Step-by-step guides can be found on the OCR Website:

• Managing user accounts
• Entering teacher assessed grades
• Sending grades to head of centre for approval
• Head of centre approval

You may also find our Grade Submission System FAQs helpful

Cambridge Nationals only

What units will be added to the Grade Submission System?

All Cambridge National units with an entry for June 2021 and no corresponding certification/cash-in entry in June 2021 will be displayed within the grade submission system.

• If you did not make unit entries and usually use Interchange to make your entries, please email us at entries@ocr.org.uk.
• If you did not make unit entries and usually use EDI to make your entries, please send an amendment file as normal and then email us at entries@ocr.org.uk.

If you have already made your unit entries for June 2021, you do not need to make these again.

Cambridge Technicals only

What candidates will show in the Grade Submission System?

For Cambridge Technicals qualifications, you will see all candidates with a qualification entry made since 1 August 2020. This may include those who have already completed the qualification.

What units will be added to the Grade Submission System?

For candidates with a qualification entry made since 1 August 2020, you will see:

• all examined units with a unit test entry for June 2021
• all moderated units you have told us you would like added to the system (see below)

If you did not make unit test entries, please do this by 16 September. You will not be charged late fees for this unit test entry. If you have already made your unit test entries for June 2021, you do not need to make these again.

By default, when you access the Grade Submission System, you will be able to see all moderated units for each qualification entry. Please see below on how to tell us which moderated units you'll be submitting teacher assessed grades for, to make the process simpler.

How do I tell you what moderated units we will be submitting?

By default, when you access the Grade Submission System, you will be able to see all moderated units for each qualification entry. For some qualifications, with many optional units, this could mean over 70 units would be displayed.

To simplify the grade submission process, we've created web forms so you can tell us the moderated units you'll be submitting teacher assessed grades for. 

Please complete the forms by 16 September 2021 - you can access the forms from the home page of Interchange.

• You only need to complete the forms you have entries for.
• If you're not planning to submit teacher assessed grades for a unit you have entries for, tell us by selecting 'WE HAVE NO MODERATED UNIT GRADES TO SUBMIT FOR THIS SUBJECT'.
• If you complete a form and need to make a change (for example to add another unit), please complete the form again. This will overwrite your previous response so please make sure you include all the units you want to submit.

If you do not complete a web form, all the available moderated units for every Cambridge Technicals qualification you have entries for will be displayed within the Grade Submission System.

This step is not required for Cambridge Technicals examined units or any Cambridge Nationals units as they are added to the grade submission system based on your unit entries.

We claimed a qualification TAG for a smaller qualification in summer 2021, the student will need units from that qualification to use towards a larger qualification, what do we do?

If you submitted a qualification level TAG for a smaller qualification in summer 2021 and the student is now working towards a larger qualification, you can top-up to the larger qualification and supply unit teacher assessed grades for the units from 2020/21 that are needed to be used towards it. If you have not made June 21 unit test entries for any examined units from 2020/21 that you need to use towards the larger qualification, please do this now.

Quality assurance and your centre policy

We’ll tell you by the end of October if you’ve been selected for quality assurance checks and we will ask you to submit evidence and records for five students for specified units to our quality assurance portal, accessed through Interchange.

• You will need to review the JCQ centre policy submitted for qualification level TAGs to check it is still relevant to what you are doing for your unit level TAGs and update the policy if necessary. 
• If you need to update your policy, it should include what has changed in the context of unit TAGs
• If you are chosen for sampling, we will ask you to submit your centre policy to us as part of your quality assurance sample. 
• You will only need to submit your policy to us if you are chosen for sampling. You do not need to send it to us unless we contact you.
• If there are no changes, you can include the same policy as the one summitted for summer 2021. 

Results and grade confidentiality

We will issue results on 13 January 2022, with release to candidates on the same day (no restricted release).

Unlike for the qualification teacher assessed grades in summer 2021, you can tell students their unit teacher assessed grades as soon as you have submitted them. We recommend you do this to allow students time to decide whether they want to take/submit assessments in the January 2022 series. Please see our FAQs for details of the January 2022 entry arrangements.

When you give students their grades, you must tell them the grades are provisional until they receive their final results on results day.

Appeals

• 13 January 2022: Appeals window opens
• 1 March 2022: Appeals window closes