Assessment Arrangements (AAs)

The SQA define Assessment Arrangements, known as AAs, as ‘appropriate arrangements which allow candidates who are disabled, and/or have been identified as having additional support needs, to access an assessment without compromising its integrity’.

There are four key principles which underpin the SQA’s assessment arrangements policy focus on the need to remove barriers for these candidates to provide them with an equal opportunity to access their assessments. These are:

Principle 1: Assessment Arrangements are intended to enable candidates to demonstrate their attainment, not to compensate for lack of attainment. 

Principle 2: Assessment Arrangement must not compromise the integrity of the qualification.

Principle 3: Assessment Arrangements must be tailored to meet a candidate’s individual needs.

Principle 4: Assessment Arrangements should reflect, as far as possible, the candidate’s normal way of learning and producing work.

Some examples of Assessment Arrangements in practice include:

• a candidate who is profoundly deaf, and who uses sign language, may need sign language support to access an assessment task

• a candidate experiencing mental health difficulties, who is very lethargic first thing in the morning due to medication, may need the start time of an assessment adjusted

• a candidate with dyslexia, who experiences difficulties with reading, may need a text reader and may also need extra time to complete an assessment

• a candidate with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), who has persistent difficulties with concentrating, may need to undertake an examination in a separate room, or in a room with only a small number of candidates.

Further SQA information regarding Assessment Arrangements can be found at:

https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/14976.779.html

Peterhead Academy Assessment Arrangement procedures

Information about pupils with Additional Support Needs is gathered throughout their time at school. In S4/5/6, two ‘lists’ of pupils are created and shared with teachers as follows:

• List 1 has details of pupils whose ASN criteria means that they automatically get AAs as suggested by other professionals working with them. For example, a pupil with a visual impairment may have documentation from someone in the medical profession which states that they need all assessments to be printed in a large font in order for them to read them clearly.

• List 2 has details of pupils with ASNs who may benefit from AAs depending on the nature of their ASN and the nature of the subject or type of assessment. For example, a pupil with dyscalculia may need AAs for assessments in Maths and Physics, but not for English or French. In these cases, the SQA expect school staff to gather evidence of the impact of the AA.  

As this is an ‘evidence-based’ process, there are occasions where using the AA makes no difference to a pupil's performance than when completing an assessment without the AA (or can actually impact negatively on a pupil's performance). In these cases, the school would not put the Assessment Arrangement request to the SQA for that particular subject, as AAs are designed to overcome barriers to learning.

Please note:

• Staff will ensure that any ‘in-class assessments’ are part of the evidence gathering process

• Assessment Period/Prelim assessments will be part of the evidence gathering process (Sometimes an AA tried in the prelim proves that it’s not required – so the evidence may result in the AA not being requested for the final exam for that subject)

• Agreement forms for provisional AAs set up for the Assessment Period/ Prelims must be signed by pupils (and parents/carers if the pupil is under 16)

• A verification process is undertaken in Term 3 to consider the evidence gathered by teachers during in-class assessments and during the Assessment Period/Prelims, and whether the AAs then need to remain the same, be modified, or be removed. The SQA also do some verification checks on this process.

• Pupils (and parents/carers if under 16) will then need to sign modified agreements for the final AAs, if evidence shows they qualify, for any further SQA assessments or SQA exams being undertaken. This is usually done pre-Easter and these AAs will then be confirmed with SQA for any final exams in April/May.