Five questions on our essential training for the Cambridge Nationals NEA

Debbie Williams, Computer Science, IT and Creative iMedia Subject Advisor

The Essentials for the NEA training course needs to be completed by all teachers of our redeveloped Cambridge Nationals. We advise that you complete it before you start to assess your students’ work. It is designed to prepare and support you for the delivery and assessment of the new Cambridge Nationals set assignments. It’s a free eLearning course and is generic for all Cambridge Nationals so if you do teach more than one subject you only need to do this course once.

It was only made live last month on Teach Cambridge so I thought as a new subject advisor I would complete it as part of my induction. In this blog I go through the questions I still had after the training and the answers I got when asking the subject advisor team. Thanks to my colleague Vinay Thawait for providing these answers to share with you.

Teach Cambridge

To access the training you need to be set up on our new secure teacher website, Teach Cambridge. This site, designed by teachers for teachers, includes all the support and resources that you will need, personalised for you and the subjects you teach. 

As it is secure you will need to be given access to the system, which your exams officer can arrange (see details for them). If you sign up without the link from your exams officer, you won’t get access to any content, so it is really important you do it through them. 

It is simple to set up, just make sure you add the courses you are delivering so you get updates, resources and training relevant to them. You can access this online course from two locations within Teach Cambridge: ‘Assessment’ on the left hand side of the page under ‘NEA/Coursework’ or ‘Training’ on the left hand side of the page under ‘Training’.

Essentials for the NEA

The training is well thought out and easy to digest. It takes you through the key NEA requirements and how to guide, support and feedback to your students without overstepping the rules which are found within the specifications for the course. However, having completed the training, I did have a few questions which I thought I would share with you here to clarify.

Practice assignments

The training states, “do not use OCR assignments for practice or create practice assignments and practice data which are similar in nature to those set by us.” What does this mean in practice? What can I use as a teacher with my students? Can I use the SAM tasks? Can I use the previous year assignment next year to support my teaching? 

You cannot use OCR set assignments issued in any previous exam series as practice tasks in the classroom. You also cannot create something similar in nature (such as changing names/items/places etc.) to the OCR set assignments issued for an exam series. The specification for each course has more details on this and confirms that “teachers/centres must not create practice assignment and practice data which are similar in nature to those set by OCR”. 

Therefore, you must not use past OCR set assignments, or amend past set assignments, for practice purposes. You can use sample assessment materials (SAM) in the classroom with your students as practice tasks. Set assignments from previous exam series must not be used with students as practice assignment.

Timing of assignments

The training states, “Assignments are published 1 June for teaching from following September.” Could teachers start using in June/July of Y10, for example, or do they have to wait until September of Y11? 

The set assignments are valid for one academic year only, from September to June, with two moderation windows in January and June. You can use the set assignment just after its release with your teaching group. You could use it with year 10 in June/July (just after its release) who will be moving into year 11 in September. 

Some centres have used it with their year 9 in June/July who will have moved into year 10 in September so they can enter them for the January exam series and then resit (if needed) in the June exam series.

Resubmitting assignments

The training states, “If students have not performed at their best during the assessment of NEA, they can improve their work and submit again.” Can this be done after a task or does it have to be after the NEA is fully complete? 

The specification, point 6.2, provides this information: “Before submitting a final mark to us, you can allow students to repeat any element of the assignment and rework their original evidence. But any feedback given to students on the original (marked) evidence, must only be generic and must be recorded and available to the moderator (see section 6.3 on Feedback and section 6.4.4 on Resubmitting work).” 

Students could improve their work and submit again (as a reattempt, specification point 6.4.4 or resubmission, specification point 6.6) in the same academic year. Otherwise, they will be required to complete the set assignment live for the next exam series. There is one resubmission opportunity per NEA assignment. This means they could submit in the January series and if the result is not what was expected for them then they could work on the same assignment (after getting feedback from their teacher), resubmit to their teachers for internal assessment, and send to OCR for moderation in the June exam series. Any feedback you give to students must be recorded within the URS and the mark adjusted accordingly. 

Assessment of the set assignments must adhere to the JCQ Instructions for conducting coursework.

Feedback forms

Do teachers complete a feedback form for improving work for every student or only those wanting to improve and resubmit their work?

Complete the form for students who will be either reattempting or resubmitting their work for moderation. Centres must follow the terminal assessment rules (Specification section 7.2) for resubmission and certification. 

Our specification advises: “For reattempts and resubmissions, you must record the reasons why a student has been allowed to reattempt or resubmit in your centre’s assessment decisions records. You must also follow our guidelines on giving feedback and record the feedback given to the student. All feedback given to the student for the purpose of a reattempt or resubmitting work must be recorded. We have created a feedback form, available on Teach Cambridge, which you can use to help support this. We monitor the assessment decisions you make. You must follow the guidelines outlined in Section 6.”

Reasons for resubmission

Where information is included for resubmission to OCR, “you must record the reason ‘why’ in your centre assessment decision records.” What might the reason be? What would be an acceptable reason to resubmit?

It could be to improve student’s grades, if they have not achieved the grade that was expected of them. Specification section 6.6 has the following info: “Following OCR moderation, if centre and the student feel they have not performed at their best during the assessment, the student can, with your agreement, improve their work and resubmit it to you again for assessment. You must be sure it is in the student’s best interests to resubmit the work for assessment.”

Questions?

Once you have completed the training if you have any questions, as always, we are here to support you. Please don’t hesitate to contact us. We can respond to emails or give you a call to talk through anything to do with delivering the course. You could get in touch using the contact details below, or you could post your question as a comment below this blog post.

Stay connected

If you have any questions, you can email us at vocational.qualifications@ocr.org.uk or support@ocr.org.uk, call us on 01223 553998 or tweet us @OCR_ICT. You can also sign up to subject updates and and receive information about resources and support.

About the author

Debbie joined the Computing team in September 2022, bringing her knowledge as a teacher and subject leader for IT, Computing and Creative Media. She has over 20 years’ experience of education working in various settings including state schools, private specialist provision, local authority, and as a marker and moderator for exam boards. She has a degree in Technology Management, a PGCE and a Masters in Teaching and Learning.