Growing sense of anticipation as students start the final push to exams and assessments As the long-anticipated and eagerly-awaited break for the Easter holidays arrives, the thoughts of students up and down the country will be turning to their summer …
This week (30 Jan - 6 Feb) is National Storytelling Week so here at Ofqual we thought we’d join in and talk about some of our favourite stories. We have to get through a fair amount of work-related reading matter …
Every school and teacher wants to give their pupils the best chance of success when sitting their GCSEs or A levels. One choice they have is which exam board’s specification to adopt in each subject each year. As such, debates …
Dear Sir Michael I refer to your comments broadcast in a recent LBC radio phone-in concerning Ramadan, which have been picked up by a number of the national newspapers today. I would like to confirm that exams have not been …
Ofqual staff hold a great deal of knowledge regarding, among other things, assessment practices, standards, regulatory policy, and compliance. However, as a relatively small organisation, we do not have the necessary in-house subject expertise to address the full range of …
Earlier this year we announced our plans to develop and pilot a national reference test. Some teachers, parents and students are understandably concerned about “yet another test”, but others are positive, appreciating why we think it right to try and …
Comparing how out-of-tolerance awards (ones that are higher or lower than expected) from 2015 compare with previous years.
We are looking for experts with detailed knowledge and experience of education, subject and assessment to help us understand whether qualifications are assessing the right things at the right level. This work is vitally important to the current reform of qualifications.
Glenys Stacey responds to the TES article 'Experts fear 'race to the bottom' after Ofqual drops extra science GCSE checks'.
Today the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) is officially launched. The framework should help people understand all the qualifications we regulate, general and vocational in England, and vocational in Northern Ireland, and how they relate to each other.
With the reform of GCSEs, AS and A levels well underway, many will be wondering how accreditation of these qualifications works. Ofqual's Phil Beach explains the process.