July 2021
Year 11 GCSE Results Day and Appeals Process
Dear students and parents/carers,
You will be aware that, in line with our centre policy https://www.bristnallhallacademy.attrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/Summer-2021-JCQ-Guidance-Centre-policy-BHA-Version-FINAL.docx, we have submitted the teacher assessed grades for public examination groups this summer to our exam boards.
I am writing now to give you more information about results day and our processes for conducting appeals. I am confident that our open approach to communication throughout the last few months with students will result in very few of you feeling the need to appeal, but it is important that we have systems in place nevertheless.
Results days
GCSE results day is Thursday 12th August 2021
On results day, please arrive at the Sports Hall no earlier than 9am and no later than 11am. You will then be invited in to collect your results. If you wish another person to collect your certificates on your behalf, you must provide us with a letter of authorisation; this letter must state the name of the person collecting them and their relationship to you. You must print and sign your name and date it.
Your child should not attend the academy if they or any member of your household are displaying one or more symptoms of covid-19 or are required to isolate at the time on the instruction of Track and Trace.
Appeals
As you know, we have conducted a thorough a robust process in order to arrive at the grades we have submitted – both our procedures and our judgments have been subjected to significant moderation and scrutiny, so we are confident that there should be few, if any, surprises on results days.
Nevertheless, our approach to managing appeals will be in line with the guidance issued by the Joint Council on Qualifications which you can read in full here. The appeals process is the only means by which you can register a concern about any of your grades.
There are two stages of appeal:
- Stage 1 – a centre review, where you ask us to consider whether there may have been any administrative or procedural errors in how we managed the process
- Stage 2 – an exam board review, where, if you are not satisfied with our response at stage 1, you can ask us to submit an appeal to the exam board, either on the basis of administrative or procedural error or because you believe we have made the wrong academic judgment in respect of your results.
There are also two types of appeal:
- ‘Priority’ appeal – which is for A-level and level 3 students only whose results mean that they will not obtain their firm offer of a place in Higher Education
- ‘Non-priority’ appeal – which is for all other students.
As we do not have any A-Level students at Bristnall Hall Academy, only ‘Non-Priority’ appeals will apply here.
If you wish to log a ‘non-priority appeal’ you must log a request for a centre review by no later than Friday 3 September – we will ensure you have the results of that review by Friday 10 September so that you can then let us know if you wish to request an exam board review, which must be done by not later than Friday 17 September.
We will respond to any feedback from exam boards as a result of stage 2 appeals within ten working days, subject to the availability of relevant staff.
All appeals must be logged by completing the relevant part of the form which is available here and submitting this in good time to gcseresults2021@bha.attrust.org.uk. If you are unable to email the appeal, then please post into the academy to Mr Grainger, Assistant Principal, Bristnall Hall Academy, Bristnall Hall Lane, B68 9PA
It is important that I let you know three things in particular about this year’s appeals process:
- The outcome of an appeal may be that your grade is raised, but it may equally mean that your grade stays the same or is even lowered, as the review at each stage will be very thorough.
- It is possible that the appeals process will cause the grades of other students to need to be reviewed as well (for example, if there is a procedural error identified which affects a whole group) – if this is the case we will of course ensure that all those affected are informed immediately.
- The full guidance is very clear about the depth of the process for conducting reviews where an appeal is based on the belief that the academic decision is wrong – it is likely that there will be a very high bar set for any appeals in this regard.
A Summary of the process described above and a copy of this letter can be found on our website here: https://www.bristnallhallacademy.attrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/Summary-of-TAG-Appeal-process.docxhttps://www.bristnallhallacademy.attrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/Summer-2021-JCQ-Guidance-Centre-policy-BHA-Version-FINAL.docx
As ever, we are looking forward to celebrating the achievements of all our students this summer, but if you have any questions in regard to anything in this letter, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Yours faithfully,
Mr J Grainger Mr K Uppal
Assistant Principal Principal
