Help and support is available for Plymouth’s young people and their parents who are worried or unsure about what to do next.
Even though GCSE exams and assessments were cancelled this year due to coronavirus, students will still get their grades today (Thursday 20 August) so that they can move on to further study or employment.
Instead of sitting exams, teachers assessed the grades they think pupils would have achieved in cancelled exams. This has been based on the evidence such as; previous exam results, tests, homework, coursework, mock exams and general course progress. The results have then been moderated by the schools themselves to give a Centre Assessment Grade.
The latest guidance from the Government, following a change announced on Monday, is that:
- Students in England will receive centre assessment grades for this week’s GCSE results and last week’s A and AS level results. This was deemed to be the fairest approach to avoid some students receiving grades that did not reflect their prior performance.
- Students awaiting their GCSE grades on Thursday will receive their centre assessment grade from their school or college, and students who received their A or AS level results last Thursday (13 August) will be reissued their centre assessment grade. If students’ calculated grades were higher than the centre assessment grade, their calculated grade will stand.
- To ensure students can progress to higher education, the Government intends to remove temporary student number controls which had been introduced for the coming academic year.
Councillor Jemima Laing Cabinet Member for Children and Young People said: “This has been an incredibly difficult situation for our young people and I’m incredibly proud of the way they have reacted to it. Clearly there will be concerns over what will happen next which is why I would urge anyone who is unsure what to do next to visit our Skills Launch Pad .”
The Skills Launch Pad is a virtual, safe space where young people can go to receive support that is right for them. It shows the opportunities in the city, links young people to advisers and advice, helps them find mental health support if necessary and brings together careers advice with job and apprenticeship offers.
It may be that the right job requires skills that young people don’t yet have so a key part of the hub is making sure that the training and qualifications needed are clearly visible and can be accessed.
