30 Shiphay Lane, Torquay TQ2 7DY
E: admin@tggsacademy.org
T: 01803 613215
Y7-11 Absence Line: 01803 653 750
30 Shiphay Lane, Torquay TQ2 7DY
E: admin@tggsacademy.org T: 01803 613215
Y7-11 Absence Line: 01803 653 750
THE EXTERNAL APPEAL PROCESS - QUESTIONING YOUR GCSE GRADES
Please note – any student appealing must bear in mind this truth: When you appeal, you take the risk that your grade can go down. You have to be very confident that it could not go down before appealing – this is particularly true when appealing at Stage 2. This document may help you decide.
STAGE 1 CENTRE REVIEW APPEALS
To proceed with a Stage 1 Appeal please download the Stage One Appeals Form. SECTION ONE ONLY should be filled in electronically and then the whole form should be sent by email to: appeals@tggsacademy.org. You can find a list of relevant Exam Boards HERE.
This must be done by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, 30th August.
We will then review your appeal and respond no later than 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 8th September. The response will be added to your submitted appeals form (in section two of the document) and returned to you via email. You can then decide whether to proceed with a Stage 2 Exam Board Appeal. If you decide to proceed you must submit the form by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, 10th September (see below).
STAGE 2 EXAM BOARD APPEAL.
Three points to understand: -
To proceed with a Stage 2 Exam Board appeal you must complete the Stage Two Appeals form. The link to this form will be sent with our Stage One response letter. This must be sent to appeals@tggsacademy.org no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, 10th September.
The school will then send the relevant paperwork to the exam board with the student’s Stage 2 appeal by 17th September. Once we have submitted the appeal to the awarding organisation, we will confirm to the student that we have done so via school e-mail.
Reasons for Stage 2 Appeal: These are the basis for an appeal: -
The Government have said this about selection of evidence: ‘Where there is a starting point that the same evidence will be used for all students in a cohort, the relevant question will usually be whether an academic decision to depart from, or not to depart from, the starting point in respect of the particular student was unreasonable. The teacher’s exercise of judgement will not be considered unreasonable simply because an alternative exercise of judgement would have resulted in a more or less favourable result for the individual student.’
How is an ‘unreasonable exercise of academic judgement’ defined? This is how the Government have defined it: ‘The independent reviewer will consider whether the original Teacher Assessed Grade decision was reasonable. The independent reviewer will not consider whether they would have given an alternative grade or whether an alternative grade could also reasonably have been given. The reviewer will only conclude that there has been an unreasonable exercise of academic judgement if the Teacher Assessed Grade was clearly wrong – i.e. there was no basis upon which the grade could properly have been given.’
For information on what to do if your Stage 2 appeal is unsuccessful, please refer to the letter from Mr Gregory sent by email on Friday, 2nd July. CLICK HERE for our Centre Policy on Teacher Assessed Grades in 2021.