Thread by @SchoolsWeek, Good morning. Ofqual interim chief regulator Dame Glenys Stacey will shortly give [...]

Good morning. Ofqual interim chief regulator Dame Glenys Stacey will shortly give evidence to the education committee @CommonsEd, followed by schools minister Nick Gibb. Stay tuned for tweets #edselctte

. @halfon4harlowMP starts by asking about grade inflation and whether it will actually help address the gap.

Stacey says there's "no right answer" on standards in 2021, and pandemic has been "enormously difficult" for students

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Stacey says there is "virtually no support" for returning to established standards in the year ahead.

Says it's "unconscionable for us to try and row back to 2019 as if the pandemic had never happened"

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Stacey says she doesn't know when normality is going to be resumed - "we are in a different era"

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Stacey says Ofqual will not allow "unconscionable or implausible" grade boundaries because qualifications must have "meaning" #edselctte

Stacey says she's spoken to the CBI and they're "not unsupportive of the approach". Says Ofqual has also spoken to lots of students, parents and families

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Stacey says Ofqual has "learned a good number of lessons" from 2020. One of them is the fact a small number of students are affected doesn't mean it's not relevant

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Stacey is being questioned about the consultation ahead of the decision on exams in 2021.

She says Ofqual did more consultation ahead of this decision than it has "ever done", an "unprecedented amount"

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Stacey is asked again if grade inflation will address the attainment gap.

She says Ofqual has taken "unprecedented steps", and that inflation isn't the only measure on the table

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Stacey says raising the standards is designed to reflect the effect of the pandemic on "all students" and argues that those who are most disadvantaged "will get most comfort from it"

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Stacey points out that qualifications and exams cannot close the disadvantage gap "per se", but insists package of measures for 2021 will be of more benefit for those who are less well prepared #edselctte

Stacey says she understands how "enormously difficult" this has been for pupils, parents and school staff. She also acknowledges regional variations in learning

"There is no doubt at all that students in some part of the country have been sent home more than others"

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"We cannot see how we can readily take into account within an examination award these differences because they are at such individual level"

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"Instead, the qualification must represent a good assessment of knowledge and learning.

"But more must be done to recognise lost learning and differential lost learning certainly," says Stacey.

Says she's ready to advise government on this

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Stacey is asked how 2022 will look and whether grade "hyperinflation" is here to stay.

She says she wouldn't call it hyperinflation. "This is a pandemic cohort"

Says they've not said anything about 2022 because it depends on the pandemic

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Stacey says it's not Ofqual's job to tell schools "how and when" to teach, but most important thing to do is to support pupils in need of catch-up

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Stacey says exams are fairest approach, and her fear is that public confidence will fall "if we were to simply walk away from examinations"

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Stacey: "What we are expecting is broadly similar figures in 2021 to 2020, though we will be evening out the differential between subjects so at subject level it will differ" #edselctte

Stacey says absence rates won't affect grading or marking.

"Exams will be of equal difficulty. They will be marked, they will be graded. It would be quite wrong to try and make any difference to that by looking at absence rates in school"

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"Indeed it would be quite wrong for ministers to have any role at all in grading," adds Stacey

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Stacey says Ofqual has suggested that one way to recognise differential lost learning would be for teachers in individual subjects to make "some evaluation of that". But says it would "sit alongside a grade" and there's a case for having it "separate to certificates"

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Stacey also says there's a "debate to be had" about whether any indicator of differential learning alongside grades should just look at days lost. "There will be students who've lost a mother to Covid or will be looking after siblings"

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"So there's a question about whether more qualitative information could be played in in some way" - Stacey

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Stacey is asked what happens if a much bigger group of pupils misses out on exams than anticipated.

"I'm hoping that prospect is vanishingly small because we are making all these arrangements to make sure that a student could at least take one assessment"

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Stacey is asked about "worst-case scenario". Says students who miss all their assessment in a subject - exams and NEAs - will receive a form of "validated teacher assessment". But insists this will be a "very small proportion" of pupils #edselctte

Stacey says validation is "much lighter-touch" than moderation, "and I would really urge schools not to do anything now. Schools and teachers do not need to start building portfolios of evidence now. Not at all"

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"If we do end up in this position, it will be an opt-in approach for students and it will be something actually at the time rather than built on performance now. Because that's not fair to students" - Stacey

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However, Stacey acknowledges that if there's a "large scale issue" with exams that will put "even that arrangement under strain".

Says she's written to education secretary saying Ofqual would need to know "pretty early" in Spring if switch from exams was to happen

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"I think we've got as far as we can get down the road of contingency planning for the scenarios that may happen" - Stacey

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Stacey says it worries her "greatly" to hear of teachers pulling together evidence for potential teacher assessments.

"I would encourage them not to. I do not see any prospect of us relying retrospectively on work undertaken by students"

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Stacey says she's "absolutely empathetic" about lost learning.

"It's the worst thing I've experienced in education in all of my known work in the area."

But says it's "not appropriate at all in my view to try and compensate for that within the grade or result"

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Stacey is asked if she's ever felt Ofqual has lacked independence from DfE

"Not one iota," she says. "I am a seasoned independent public servant"

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Asked what advice she'd give to her successor, Stacey says: "Make sure you've got the stamina for it. It would help if you're a bit younger than me".

She also says it's important to "really get into the detail". She also says Ofqual needs to be "much more visible" #edselctte

"I would say and just remind us all that the exams are not changing one iota. The questions are going to be just as difficult as they always are and just as wide-ranking, and the marking will be of the same standard" - Stacey

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Stacey adds that it's not that students are "getting an easier test". We are not letting go of the core things here"

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