Examination Results Information (Results, Dates, Grade Boundaries, Reviews and Certificates)

2024-2025

	DATE
November 2024 - Sixth Form GCSE Resits	9th January 2025
January 2025 - BTEC (year 10, Year 11 and Sixth Form)	20th March 2025
GCE/Level 3 BTEC - sixth Form	15th August 2025
GCSE/Level 2 BTEC - Year 9, Year 10, Year 11 & Sixth Form	21st August 2025

Letter regarding results collection (times and arrangements)

When you get your results – what happens next?

We hope that you will be successful in getting the grades you were hoping for. If you have completed all relevant qualifications, you will:

• Receive a GCSE or BTEC grade in August for each of your subjects;
• Receive a certificate (issued in December).  Please note that any unclassified grade will not be certificated.

What to do if you’re happy with the results

You do not need to do anything if you are satisfied with your results; any certificates will be sent to the School and can be collected on Thursday 5th December 2024 from 2.30pm to 5pm. Please check the website for full information closer to the time.  Certificates that are not collected will be stored, but destroyed after 3 years.

What to do if you’re not happy with the results

If the grades awarded are not what you expected there are a number of options available. Before any post results services can be requested, all pupils must complete the consent form that they have in their results envelope.  This confirms full understanding and acceptance that with any clerical check or review of results, marks may go down as well as up.  It further confirms that St George’s has permission to access a copy of individual candidates' exam scripts on their behalf, if required.

From results day onwards, if you contact the school through the email address - examreviews@st-georgescofe-thanet.kent.sch.uk we can give you greater detail about specific scores in a subject and advice on whether we believe a review is likely to be worth undertaking.  Please be aware that there are almost 500 pupils collecting results at this time, and that you may not get an immediate response.

In some cases, the school may feel that there are grounds to request a review of a result.  If this is the case, we will need permission from the pupil, and the cost will be paid by the school. 

It would be very useful if all pupils could contact the exams Office – exams@st-georgescofe-thanet.kent.sch.uk with their contact details, as last year it was very difficult to get hold of some pupils to confirm that they would give us permission to request a review. 

Please contact the exams office if you have any questions or queries - exams@st-georgescofe-thanet.kent.sch.uk

Grades Explained

GCSE 9-1 to BTEC Grades Comparison

WJEC Vocational subjects - Engineering and Hosp & Catering

BTEC Tech Award subjects are Art, Sport, Travel, Music, Health, Enterprise and DIT

What are Grade Boundaries, and how do they work?

Each year, we are contacted by parents and pupils who want to ask questions about grade boundaries.  This document will hopefully answer many of the most frequently asked questions.

Grade boundaries show the minimum number of marks you need for each grade, and are published on results day. 

Only once all exam papers in the country have been marked are grade boundaries set by senior examiners and assessment experts. It’s not until after all the marking has been completed that it’s possible to see how difficult students found the paper (for example, compared to previous years) and so take this into account when setting the boundaries. This means that a student who performed at a certain level should get the same grade regardless of which year they sat the exam, but it doesn’t mean they will score the same mark.

For example, a pupil could gain a grade 5 by scoring 83 marks in English Literature in 2019, but their brother who sat the Literature exam in 2018 needed 76 marks to get a grade 5, because students across the country found the paper harder that year.

Remember, grade boundaries are individual to a subject.  In 2019, to gain a 5 in Chemistry students needed to get 116 marks if they sat Foundation and 80 marks if they sat the Higher paper (which contains harder questions).  However, those sitting Physics needed to score 130 marks if they sat Foundation and 75 marks if they sat the Higher paper.   This shows that pupils found the Chemistry papers more difficult than the Physics papers across the country in 2019.

• You cannot compare the grade boundaries of different subjects.
• You cannot compare grade boundaries of one subject from one year to the next.
• You cannot compare grade boundaries with someone who sat the same subject in another school, but with a different exam board.

Foundation or Higher?

In some subject eg the sciences, maths, staff have to make a judgement call on what tier to enter a pupil at, based on assessments throughout the course.

Exam boards must include some ‘common questions’ – questions which are the same on the Foundation and Higher tier papers – to help them align standards between the tiers. In theory, a pupil will perform similarly on those questions, regardless of the tier for which they were entered. So a pupil who might expect to get a grade 4 on the Foundation tier, would also expect to get a grade 4 on the Higher tier. 

The lowest key grade on the Higher tier is a Grade 3, and if they fail to get this then they would most likely be ungraded.  The maximum mark that a pupil can score on a Foundation paper is a 5. Staff therefore need to discuss which paper would best suit the pupil, in order to maximise their chances of success.

 

Information regarding grade boundaries can also be found on the exam boards websites - 

Pearson AQA

 

 

If a pupils wishes to request a review and the school does not feel that there are grounds for this, then the cost of the review must be paid for by the pupil, before we can request the review.

• Pupils are strongly advised to discuss any concerns with the appropriate Directors of subjects before making a formal request for a review of marking.
• Grade Boundaries will be published on our website - see the grade boundary above.
• A webpage explaining Grade Boundaries can be found - Click here
• It is important to note that very few reviews of marking requests result in a change of grade, with the majority showing the original marking to be accurate.
• Please note that the costs shown on the sheet in your envelope are per paper, not per subject. For example, Maths was made up of three papers, so to review all three papers it would cost £120.

If you're unhappy about an exam results, you can ask the school to complete a review of your results, this could be a clerical re-check or review of marking or you can request the marked paper ('access to scripts').
If the school do not feel their are grounds for a review of the script and pupils still want to, against our advice, they can go ahead at their own cost.

For more information please check the exam boards websites - 

AQA

Pearson

Information about collecting results

If pupils are unable to collect their results on results day and would prefer to have their results emailed they need to collect a form from the Examinations Office.

Alternatively, the pupil can arrange for a representative to collect their results for them. Pupils must inform the Examinations Office prior to results day.  The representative must have photographic ID.

Candidate Results form or a copy of the form can be collected from the Examinations Office.

If you need to collect exam certificates, please ensure you contact the school first to arrange a suitable date and time.  Contact - exams@st-georgescofe-thanet.kent.sch.uk to arrange a date to collect

If you are unable to collect your own certificates, a family member can collect on your behalf.  They require written consent and photographic ID when they collect. The school does not post certificates.

Please ensure you do not lose your certificates as they can be expensive to replace, around £45 per certificate.  If you do lose them you will need to contact the exam boards directly to organise replacements. 

 

Think you have lost your certificates and need replacements?

If you have already collected your certificates and have lost them you can contact the exam boards and they may be able to replace them for you.  This depends on how long it is since you have sat the exam, however please check their websites for full information.

AQA - Click Here

Pearson - Click Here

OCR - Click Here

WJEC - Click Here

In some cases, exam boards have changed their names and merged so the govenment has issued information to help you check which board to contact for a replacement certificate or certified statement of results if your old board no longer exists.

Click Here

For pupils who left in Summer 2024, your Artwork will be ready to collect on Thursday 5th December from 14.30 to 17.00. 

Pupils who left prior to Summer 2024, please contact the school to arrange a date to collect your work. 
01843 609008 or exams@st-georgescofe-thanet.kent.sch.uk