How will your work be assessed?
All students will have to produce a portfolio of evidence. For each unit of work you will be given a series of tasks to complete and an assessment grid that will identify what you have to do to achieve a particular grade. Your teacher will check your work against the grid and make comments about the effort you have made and the quality of your work. Suggestions will be made to help you to achieve first, the minimum pass standard and then, the merit and distinction grades. Points will be awarded and added to your overall score with every unit that you complete. You will be expected to meet regular deadlines and a referral procedure will operate for students who fail to do this.
Level 3 Public Services Course just need to produce a portfolio
How will standards of work be maintained?
Internal Verification
This is a quality control check to ensure that all students’ work is being fairly marked and standards are being maintained. When a unit of work has been assessed and graded it will be passed to another teacher in the department who will check that all of the tasks have been completed to the appropriate standard. It may be necessary at this stage, for you, to amend your work, if it does not meet the standards set by other students, who have been awarded the same grade.
Storage of work
All work will be completed and handed in via Google Classroom, all students will produce evidnence and present it in a digital portfolio which will be shared so that the assessor, internal moderator and external moderator can access the information for quality
External Verification
An external verifier from NCFE will visit school between January and March to look at samples of work covering one unit. The samples will be chosen to show the different grades awarded. The external verifier is checking the quality of the assignments and the standard of assessment. S/he may recommend that changes be made to the assignment and to the work you have done, although this may cause you some extra work, it will make sure that you are achieving the required standard to get a good grade for the course and is therefore very worthwhile.
Plagiarism and Malpractice
What does authenticity mean?
This means that your work is genuine, real and valid. Simply, that you have researched and identified real case studies and/or facts.
On the completion of each assignment you will be requested to sign an authenticity statement to prove that your work is your own.
What does plagiarism mean?
Plagiarism is a term used for copying, lifting out work (copy and paste) or using other people ideas and pretending they are your own. Plagiarism is very serious offence. You can use other people’s work as long as you reference it. To stop your work being rejected as a result of plagiarism you will be expected to create a bibliography for every assignment
In order to achieve an NCFE qualification, you must produce your own work.
You will not be allowed to:
Copy word for word from textbooks
Copy and paste from the Internet
Copy from other students (past or present)
without giving reference to the original author
The examination board has a clear policy on how to deal with students who cheat. If you copy the work of another student you will risk having your work cancelled and may achieve nothing. If you lend your work to others, you will also risk having your work cancelled. If you steal another student’s work and copy it, the exam board may cancel all of your courses.
Do not cheat, remember your teachers are very good at detecting work that has been copied!
NCFE Assessment Policy and Academic Appeals Procedure
Student Guidance
Introduction
The Duchess’s High School, takes its responsibility for ensuring the quality and reliability of assessment very seriously. It recognises that high quality assessment practices are an important element of the student experience and that the outcomes of assessment influence students’ future lives.
Courses are assessed through tutor-marked assignments rather than exams. You need to be aware of the volume of work that needs to be generated on an on-going basis to complete these assignments and the importance of getting that work handed in for assessment by the given deadline.
You will be closely monitored throughout the course and your subject teachers will keep detailed records of your progress. This information will be used for reports, consultation days and regular updates will be sent to form teachers and Directors of Learning to follow up where necessary.
You will be required to keep a record of your own achievement as follows:
Work handed in for assessment
Unit grades achieved
If you keep your record sheets up to date you will be aware of your current achievement the grade that you are working towards and what you have to do to improve
Assessment Entitlement
All students are entitled to:
Fair and open assessment practices.
An assignment indicating the criteria against which you will be assessed, assessment plan, unit specification, and a scheme of work.
Regular advice, counselling and guidance through tutors.
Access to an open and fair appeals procedure
Assessments being carried out regularly and outcomes reported with written and/or verbal feedback
Assessment Procedures
Handing in Assignments:
You will be given a deadline for each assignment
You will be given oral/written feedback on your work.
Your teacher will then give you ONE MORE OPPORTUNITY to upgrade your work based on the feedback you will be given. Your work will then be re-submitted to your teacher within an agreed time.
Failure to meet deadlines:
If you fail to hand in work by the agreed deadline you will need to provide evidence of extenuating circumstance e.g. Request for deadline extension form. It will not be acceptable to say to your teacher that you did not have time to complete the assignment
A failure on your part may result in you not having the opportunity to upgrade your work for a merit or distinction level
Can you appeal against a grade?
Once your work has been assessed and a grade recorded, that grade will stand, unless the internal verifier requires that the grade be changed. Students can appeal against a grading decision made by the assessor. There is a 4-stage appeals procedure as follows:
The candidate should appeal in writing to the assessor within one week of the assessment decision. A written reply must be given by the assessor explaining their decision within one week of receiving the appeal from the candidate.
If the candidate is not satisfied with the response from the assessor:
The candidate should contact the Internal Verifier of the programme within one week of the assessor’s response. The Internal Verifier will review the assessor’s decision and the candidate evidence. The Internal Verifier will give a written response to the candidate within one week of receiving the request from the candidate.
If the candidate is not satisfied with the response from the Internal Verifier:
An appeal panel will meet within three weeks and review the evidence and give and oral and written decision. The decision of this panel is final.
The membership of the appeal panel will be:
An assessor from a different course team
The Internal Verifier from Stage Two
The original assessor
Head of Year (as an observer)
Deputy Head or a member of the leadership group.
The candidate and parent / guardian would be invited to attend.
All the evidence and responses from the above stages must be available at the panel meeting.
The Lead Internal Verifier should keep a record of these responses in their file to make available to the External Moderator/Verifier
If the candidate is not satisfied, he or she may appeal to Regional Quality Manager at NCFE. This should be in writing. The address for communication will be issued upon request.