On 18 March 2020, the Secretary of State for Education announced that the summer 2020GCSE, AS and A level exam series would be cancelled in order to help fight the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and that students due to sit the exams would be awarded a grade based on an assessment of the grade they would have been most likely to achieve had exams gone ahead. On 23 March, in a written statement to Parliament, the Secretary of State explained the government’s intention that results would be issued to this year’s cohort based on a range of evidence and data, including performance on mock exams and non-exam assessment.

School or college-based assessment already has an important role in many GCSEs, AS and A levels and in extraordinary circumstances such as these, schools and colleges are best placed to judge the likely performance of their students at the end of the course.

Ofqual and exam boards will do everything they can to make sure grades awarded this year are as fair as possible for students. This will include putting all centre assessment grades through an external standardisation process to better ensure that grades are comparable between schools and colleges.

The guidance below aims to provide teachers, students, parents and carers with answers to some common questions about grades to be awarded in summer 2020.

Ofqual Letter & Guidance