06th, May 2020
Dear 3rd Year Student and your Parents/Guardians
I hope this mail finds you and your families safe and well.
In our e-mail of last week, we informed you of the Department of Education and Skills guidance regarding the Junior Cycle examinations.
Since then we have undertaken a planning and consultation process on how to best reflect your achievements in a manner that is fair and equitable to each of you while also meeting the requirements of the DES guidelines.
The following points were taken on board in attempting to ensure fairness to all:
· It was universally accepted that students had worked hard and completed very good work prior to the closure which needed to be recorded fairly and accurately.
· It was also accepted that most students would have improved on these results in the months between the pre and the actual exam. This also needs to be recognised.
· Any final grades or achievements should not be diminished by a student’s inability to engage with learning after March 12th through lack of broadband or devices.
· In addition, there has been much valuable work completed since the March 12th closure. Those of you who are engaging in this work need to be highly commended, acknowledged and rewarded for your efforts also.
Taking all these considerations into account we have agreed on the following solution which has been approved by the school’s Board of Management:
· Students will receive a dossier of reports reflecting their effort and achievements across their Junior Cycle.
· This dossier will include separate reports on work completed prior to March 12th, work completed since March 12th, CBA grades and a State completion certificate.
· The work completed before March 12th will be reported by using the grade each student achieved in the pre-exam held in February of this year.
· Where relevant grades for project and portfolio work will be added to the theory result achieved in the pre-exam.
· Grades across all subjects will be increased by 10 percentage points to reflect the potential improvements in work that might normally occur between the pre-exam and the end of year.
· The work completed since March 12th will be assessed and reported on using the method outlined in our last mail, that is 10% for one assignment per week over the four weeks since Easter and 60% for an assessment to be held during the final two weeks. Guidelines on the format of these final assessments including a timetable will issue at the beginning of next week.
· CBA’s already completed will be reported using the Junior Cycle descriptors designed for these pieces of work.
· The Department of Education and Skills will issue a completion certificate which will identify the subjects and levels that each student had intended to sit in the Junior Cycle State examinations.
While accepting that there is no perfect solution, we feel that the plan as outlined above fairly reflects the achievements of each student at this challenging time. We strongly encourage each of you to engage with the remaining assessments and finish this year on a positive note knowing that you will now be able to enjoy a well-earned break over the summer months without the worries of autumn exams hanging over you.
We wish to commend all of you for your efforts throughout the junior cycle and say how proud we are of you. We congratulate each of you on reaching this milestone in your lives and look forward to welcoming you into senior cycle and better times ahead.
Best Regards – Keep safe
Anton O Mahony
Principal
Skibbereen Community School