An open letter to Gavin Williamson

I have written an open letter to Gavin Williamson to implore him to change the way in which BTEC students grades are calculated. I have sent this letter to him directly and via the Department for Education contact us form and to his parliamentary email. I have also sent it to my local MPS both for where I live and where I teach, it would be wonderful if you could all do the same. Send a letter to your MP and encourage them to support changes to the BTEC grading. 

Also, feel free to retweet and tag your local MP and Gavin Williamson in the open letter. 
https://twitter.com/AWandICIC/status/1295647596120285185

Below is the letter both a screenshot and the letter for you to use if you so desire. 

Dear Mr Williamson

I would love to congratulate you on the successful U-turn on KS4 and KS5 results, meaning that students will get the grades they deserve. However, I can’t do this. There are still a whole cohort of students, learners, young adults and our next generation being let down by the system.

Students that decided to study a BTEC or a vocational course offered by exam boards are still at the mercy of the algorithm, that went so disastrously wrong for A-Level and GCSE students. How can this be fair? How can a student who has been left with poorly calculated exam results compete with students who have been given, and rightly so, the grades that they deserve.

For example, how can a student who has been given straight Distinctions in all work that was teacher marked be given a Pass by the algorithm? How can a student that attained a Merit in all teacher marked work be given a Fail? This is what these students are facing. Externally marked units and exams that have grades that don’t reflect the work they have put in and don’t reflect the mark they deserve.

Along with this BTEC, were so confident in their grading system they never asked teachers for predicted grades for externally marked units and exams. They never bothered to think, maybe the teachers know their students best. Yet they reassured us all, “the external grades will reflect the internal units you have marked” they said.

Manipulating teachers into entering grades, was the next tactic. “If for Y12 students we enter grades from this year, next year when they are in Y13, you can get a bigger picture of the student and give the algorithm more information to give a more accurate grade” was my suggestion. However, this was not allowed. “All units that have been completed or due to be completed this year need entering into our system, otherwise you will have to do both the internal units and the external units again in Y13 along with the work already planned to complete in Y13.” Was their response.

How is this fair? How can the system fail a whole cohort of students all because their interests and passions lie outside of the traditional A-Level and GCSE set up? Why are teachers trusted for GCSE and A-Levels but not for BTEC and Vocational courses?

The system has let these students down and has let educators and teachers down. This needs to be corrected this needs to be changed. I implore you to ensure that all BTEC and Vocational courses should be teacher/ centre assessed and not left to the mercy of the algorithm that has proved so ineffective and disastrous to all learners across the country.

Yours sincerely