Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help support home schooled pupils who were due sit exams in summer 2020 in the event that those pupils are unable to provide a sufficient level of evidence for exam centres to allocate assessment grades and rankings for those pupils unable to sit those exams as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Not all external candidates will be able to be awarded a calculated grade this summer because some will not have been in a position to provide sufficient evidence to enable their exam centre to include them in their centre assessment grades and rankings. The Department has therefore announced that there will be an opportunity for these and other students to sit exams in the autumn. Following Ofqual’s consultation on this autumn series, it has been confirmed that students will be able to sit exams in all subjects at A, AS level and GCSE.

Ofqual has also asked university and college representatives associations to consider the steps that universities and colleges could take when making admissions decisions this summer for any external candidates who do not receive a grade. They have said that they believe institutions will consider a range of other evidence and information for these students to allow them to progress wherever possible.