Dorchester School: “BTEC exams will go ahead”
Thomas Hardye School says the decision shouldn’t have been left to them
Thomas Hardye school in Dorchester will be running their vocational BTEC examinations this month.
The government told schools it’s down to them to decide if the exams are safe to go ahead in January.
But, that’s not been well received at the school, who thinks it’s unfair to leave it to them to make the call.
Mike Foley is the head teacher at the school. He said:
“I was so disappointed that we yet again don’t have clarity on examinations.
“This should have been thought through before the announcement the other evening, and the idea that this is now kicked back into the court of schools to decide whether we should have exams or not is just unacceptable.
“It’s also unacceptable for those students who’ve been revising all through the Christmas holidays. It’s just unacceptable to leave them in some kind of limbo yet again over examinations.”
The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the House of Commons yesterday:
“I know students and staff have worked hard to prepare for the January exams and assessments of vocational and technical qualifications, and we want to allow schools and colleges to continue with these assessments where they judge it is right to do so.
“No college should feel pressured to offer these and we will ensure all students are able to progress fairly, just as we will with VTQs in the summer.”
Mr Foley says a Plan B should have been ready prepared for the scenario in which exams were called into question during a lockdown.
Over Christmas, staff spent time preparing the school for mass testing, ready to open on Monday.
Mr Foley is calling for better organisation for the rest of the year, and next year too.
“Lots of staff at this school have been in school literally every day since last March, during holidays and all the rest of it.
“There will be no resentment here from anyone, me included, for any extra hour I put in to making this work, and trying to make this school safe for people.
“What I resent is the poor planning, the poor communication and just the shambolic organisation that I’m expected to pick up at the last minute, and then I have to pass that pressure on to other people.”
He says it’s not too early to think about what the situation might be in 2022.
GCSE and A-Level assessments will not go ahead this summer and will be judged by teachers, rather than algorithms like last year.