A-level Drama and Theatre Specification Specification for first teaching in 2016
PDF | 815.47 KB
The non-exam assessment (NEA) for this specification is for Component 2 Creating original drama and Component 3 Making theatre .
Visit aqa.org.uk/7262 for detailed information about all aspects of NEA administration.
The head of the school or college is responsible for making sure that NEA is conducted in line with our instructions and Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) instructions.
To meet Ofqual’s qualification and subject criteria:
Students must have some direct supervision to ensure that the work submitted can be confidently authenticated as their own.
Please inform your students of the AQA regulations concerning malpractice. They must not:
These actions constitute malpractice and a penalty will be given (for example, disqualification).
If you identify malpractice before the student signs the declaration of authentication, you don’t need to report it to us. Please deal with it in accordance with your school or college’s internal procedures. We expect schools and colleges to treat such cases very seriously.
If you identify malpractice after the student has signed the declaration of authentication, the head of your school or college must submit full details of the case to us at the earliest opportunity. Please complete the form JCQ/M1 , available from the JCQ website at jcq.org.uk
You must record details of any work which is not the student’s own on the front of the assessment booklet or other appropriate place.
You should consult your exams officer about these procedures.
Component 2 is teacher marked and moderated by AQA.
We will provide support for using the marking criteria and developing appropriate tasks through teacher standardisation.
For further information about teacher standardisation visit our website at aqa.org.uk/7262
In the following situations teacher standardisation is essential. We will send you an invitation to complete teacher standardisation if:
For further support and advice please speak to your adviser. Email your subject team at drama@aqa.org.uk for details of your adviser.
You must ensure that you have consistent marking standards for all students. One person must manage this process and they must sign the Centre declaration sheet to confirm that internal standardisation has taken place.
Internal standardisation may involve:
To meet Ofqual’s qualification and subject criteria, you must show clearly how marks have been awarded against the assessment criteria in this specification.
Your comments will help the moderator see, as precisely as possible, where you think the students have met the assessment criteria.
You must record your comments on the Candidate record form .
You must check that the correct marks are written on the Candidate record form and that the total is correct.
The deadline for submitting all your students' marks to AQA for moderation is given at aqa.org.uk/keydates
Students’ work must be kept under secure conditions from the time that it is marked, with completed CRF. After the moderation period and the deadline for Enquiries about Results (or once any enquiry is resolved) you may return the work to students.
You must send all your students' marks to us by the date given at aqa.org.uk/deadlines . You will be asked to send a sample of your students' NEA evidence to your moderator.
You must show clearly how marks have been awarded against the assessment criteria in this specification. Your comments must help the moderator see, as precisely as possible, where you think the students have met the assessment criteria. You must:
The moderator re-marks a sample of the evidence and compares this with the marks you have provided to check whether any changes are needed to bring the marking in line with our agreed standards. Any changes to marks will normally keep your rank order but, where major inconsistencies are found, we reserve the right to change the rank order.
If you are in a consortium of schools or colleges with joint teaching arrangements (where students from different schools and colleges have been taught together but entered through the school or college at which they are on roll), you must let us know by:
We will allocate the same moderator to all schools and colleges in the consortium and treat the students as a single group for moderation.
All the work must be available at the lead school or college.
Component 3 is marked by AQA.
All your students’ work for Component 3 will be marked by a visiting AQA assessor. The visit will be by arrangement and take place over the course of the certificating year.
All NEA evidence, including the reflective report and an audiovisual recording of all performances seen on the day of the visit, must be posted to the examiner. It must arrive within 10 working days of the visit taking place.
Enquiries about results (EARs) will be based on the audiovisual recording of the performance seen by the AQA assessor.
For advice and guidance about arrangements for any of your students, please email us as early as possible at eos@aqa.org.uk
Occasional absence: you should be able to accept the occasional absence of students by making sure they have the chance to make up what they have missed. You may organise an alternative supervised session for students who were absent at the time you originally arranged.
Lost work: if work is lost you must tell us how and when it was lost and who was responsible, using our special consideration online service at aqa.org.uk/eaqa
Special help: where students need special help which goes beyond normal learning support, please use the CRF to tell us so that this help can be taken into account during moderation.
Students who move schools: students who move from one school or college to another during the course sometimes need additional help to meet the requirements. How you deal with this depends on when the move takes place. If it happens early in the course, the new school or college should be responsible for the work. If it happens late in the course, it may be possible to arrange for the moderator to assess the work as a student who was ‘Educated Elsewhere’.
You will receive a report when the results are issued, which will give feedback on the appropriateness of the tasks set, interpretation of the marking criteria and how students performed in general.
We will give you the final marks for each component when the results are issued.
We may need to keep some of your students’ work to meet Ofqual requirements for awarding, archiving or standardisation purposes.