Procedure for Dealing with Access to Scripts, Enquiries about Results and Appeals Policy
1. Purpose
This procedure confirms Ashbourne’s compliance with JCQ’s General Regulations for Approved Centres that the centre has in place “a written internal appeals procedure to manage disputes when a candidate disagrees with a centre decision not to support a clerical check, a review of marking, a review of moderation or an appeal.”
Following the issue of results, awarding bodies make post-results services available. Full details of these services, internal deadlines for requesting a service and fees charged are provided by the Examination Officer.
Candidates are also informed of the arrangements for post-results services before they sit any exams.
If the centre or a candidate (or his/her parent/carer) has a concern and believes a result may not be accurate, a review of the result may be requested.
2. Reviews of Results (RoRs) offers three services:
Written candidate consent (informed consent via candidate email is acceptable) is required in all cases before a request for an RoR service 1 or 2 is submitted to the awarding body as with these services candidates’ marks and subject grades may be lowered. Candidate consent can only be collected after the publication of results.
If a concern is raised about a particular examination result, the Examination Officer, teaching staff and head of centre will investigate the feasibility of requesting a review at the centre’s expense.
Where the centre does not uphold a request from a candidate, the candidate may pay the appropriate fee, and a request will be made to the awarding body on the candidate’s behalf.
If the candidate (or their parent/carer) believes there are grounds to appeal against the centre’s decision not to support a review, an internal appeal can be submitted to the centre using the internal appeals form at least one week prior to the internal deadline for submitting a RoR.
3 Appeals following the outcome of an enquiry about results
Where the head of centre remains dissatisfied after receiving the outcome of a RoR, an appeal will be made to the awarding body, following the guidance in the JCQ publications Post-results services and JCQ Appeals Booklet.
Where the head of centre is satisfied after receiving the RoR outcome, but the candidate and/or their parent/carer believes there are grounds for a preliminary appeal to the awarding body, a further internal appeal may be made to the head of centre. Following this, the head of centre’s decision as to whether to proceed with a preliminary appeal will be based upon the acceptable grounds as detailed in the JCQ Appeals Booklet. Candidates or parents/carers are not permitted to make direct representations to an awarding body.
The internal appeals form should be completed and submitted to the centre within 10 calendar days of the notification of the outcome of the RoR. Subject to the head of centre’s decision, this will allow the centre to process the preliminary appeal and submit to the awarding body within the required 30 calendar days of receiving the outcome of the review of results process. Awarding body fees which may be charged for the preliminary appeal must be paid to the centre by the appellant before the preliminary appeal is submitted to the awarding body. If the appeal is upheld by the awarding body, this fee will be refunded by the awarding body and repaid to the appellant by the centre.