Functional Skills entries for the March 2021 series

Published:Tuesday 2 Feb 2021

The Department for Education (DfE) confirmed on Friday 22 January that schools and colleges can continue with the March series exams where they judge it right to do so. This means it is up to each Head of Centre to make the decision, with public health being the most important factor.

If schools or colleges decide to go ahead with the March exams

If a school or college plans to run the March exams, question papers are already on the way.

If any learners need to self-isolate, they should be marked as ‘self-isolating’ on the attendance list, and our normal special consideration processes will apply.

If schools or colleges decide NOT to go ahead with the March exams

This means that learners will NOT receive a result for the exams they were due to take. Schools and colleges will need to re-enter learners in the summer series.

We’re waiting for the outcomes from the joint DfE and Ofqual 2021 series consultation, and we’ll publish further information when we know what this means for schools/colleges and their learners. In the meantime, they’ve said that arrangements will be put in place to make sure these learners aren’t disadvantaged.

Schools and colleges should keep their unused question papers secure until after the date of the exams. They can then either use these for future as teaching materials, or destroy the papers securely.

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