Gearing up for another successful summer series
With the spring term well underway, we look forward to continuing to support you and your learners as you plan and prepare for this summer’s exams and assessments.
Above all, we are committed to ensuring that your learners are provided with the opportunity to demonstrate what they know, understand, and can do, and that the assessment and awarding process continues to be valid, reliable, and as fair as possible for everyone.
With this in mind, we have recently published Advance Information for GCSE and AS/A level learners to account for lost teaching and learning time and to help them focus their revision.
Our subject teams continue to be on hand to provide support and guidance to school and college staff throughout the whole exam and assessment process.
We have also expanded our provision of free teaching and learning resources, which includes more than 3,500 Blended Learning modules, Knowledge Organisers and Exam Walk Throughs. All of which have been designed specifically to support teaching and to help learners with their revision.
In addition to this, we have worked alongside Welsh Government to develop a useful ‘Guide to Distance Learning’ which outlines some great advice on remote learning as well as links to our blended learning resources.
All these resources, and many more, can be accessed via our Digital Resources website.
Learners will also be able to access a range of handy resources, materials, and tips to help them through exams via this year’s ‘Power-Up’ campaign. Set to launch in March, and building on the success of 2022, the campaign is a partnership between WJEC, Welsh Government, Qualifications Wales and Careers Wales.
Collaboration and close working relationships will also be key to the success of the part we play in Qualified for the Future. We are already involved in preparatory work and are looking forward to engaging widely with the whole education community to co-construct a suite of new qualifications that, within the design parameters agreed by Qualifications Wales, are engaging, inclusive, and aligned to the needs of the curriculum.
It’s important that open dialogue, feedback, and discussion informs every step of the qualification development process, and we will be delivering a range of engagement activities over the coming months and are committed to involving as many stakeholders as possible.
Regarding new qualifications, we continue to make solid progress as we prepare for delivery of the new Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales. Feedback from schools and colleges has been positive, ‘Preparing to Deliver’ events have been well attended, and we are set to run a series of ‘Preparing to Teach’ sessions later this month. It’s also important to remember that the qualification has a Regional Support Team who are on hand to help with any queries in the run-up to first teaching.
Enhancing our provision of vocational qualifications continues to be important to us, and in September, we launched our new Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care: Principles and Contexts. Aimed at post-16 learners in full-time education, the new qualification was developed in collaboration with further education practitioners. We look forward to continuing to expand our vocational qualification offering, with work underway to deliver a reformed suite of Level 3 qualifications.
For me personally, it’s hugely important to continue to meet teachers and learners face-to-face. It’s been a great experience to visit schools and colleges across the country, most recently Ysgol John Bright in Llandudno, to hear their thoughts and to find out more about their experiences.
I would welcome the opportunity to visit your school or college and encourage you to contact me via lorna.turner@wjec.co.uk to make the necessary arrangements.
One final thought, 2023 marks our 75th anniversary, and to commemorate this milestone we will be hosting a celebratory event later in the year, to recognise our achievements and relationships developed during this time. Further information on this will be shared in due course.
Thank you for your support and I wish you well for the rest of the term.
Yours sincerely
Ian