Our legal experts have put together this reference guide about DSARs and 2020 exam results for students, schools, and colleges.
This information is focused on GCSEs, AS-levels, and A-levels. For legal advice about technical or vocational qualifications or any other issues, please contact us to find out more.
What’s a DSAR ?
DSAR stands for Data Subject Access Request. Students and their families have the right to make these requests under Article 15 of GDPR.
Students can request the personal data a school or college holds about them as well as information about how that data is used (often contained in a privacy notice).
Schools and colleges can refuse a DSAR if the student doesn’t have a suitable reason for requesting the information, or if they request an excessive amount of information. They can also charge a fee for large requests.
Schools and colleges must respond to a DSAR within a month, but can ask for up to two months of extensions if needed.
The Information Commission’s Office (ISO) is being flexible during the coronavirus pandemic and may allow schools and colleagues to delay their response due to coronavirus. But they must still respond. Parents and students will be keen to meet the 17 September deadline for appealing exam results, so schools and colleges should respond promptly.
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How do DSARs work for the 2020 exam results?
As students didn’t sit exams in 2020, exam boards have based their grades on teacher assessments instead (centre-assessed grades or CAGs). Students can request information about these assessments and the evidence used, such as:
- Their results from previous mock exams, assignments, homework, or non-exam assessments
- Their performance records
- Emails about provisional grades or teacher assessments.
Students and their parents can’t use DSARs to request access to exam scripts or information about their answers on the exam. This exam script exception applies even to mock exams – so they can request the result but not the mock exam script itself.
Schools may also have to disclose how they’ve ranked students within a particular class or year. This may reveal information about other students and if so, schools must consider whether this is reasonable and whether they need the others students’ consent.
See the full ICO guidance on exemptions
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What are Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs?)
Centre Assessed Grades, or CAGs, are grades that teachers assign to students based on their previous academic performance. These grades are based on evidence such as mock exam results and performance in other assignments, homework, and non-exam assessments.
School and colleges had to send CAGs to exam boards by 29 May 2020, and who used them when awarding grades to students who were due to sit GCSE, AS and A-level exams this summer.
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What are calculated grades?
The exam boards standardised students’ CAGs across all schools and colleges to generate calculated grades. These calculated grades are the final grades that students received on results day.
However, the government has since confirmed that it will be the CAGs that actually now form the “official” results for students.
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What can students do if they’re unhappy about their CAGs?
Ofqual have been clear that “you can’t appeal your grade just because you don’t agree with the centre assessment grade submitted by your school or college.” This means students can’t appeal:
- Because they think they would have done better if they had sat their exams
- To get their mock exam result instead
- To get their UCAS predicted grade instead.
Students who’re unhappy with their grades can:
- Make an administrative error appeal
- Make a malpractice/maladministration appeal
- Sit an exam in Autumn.
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Administrative error appeals
Students can ask their school or college to check if it made an administrative error when submitting their CAG or rank order information.
If there was a mistake, the school or college can ask the exam board to correct it and recalculate the student’s grade with the corrected information.
The exam board itself may have made a mistake when communicating the student’s grades. If the school or college believes this to be the case, they can appeal to the exam board on the student’s behalf.
All appeals must have supporting evidence and the criteria for administrative errors are narrow.
The Ofqual guidance of 20 August gives two examples of administrative errors, namely mixing up two students with similar names or accidentally copying across the wrong data. If those errors have been made, students can successfully appeal.
The updated Ofqual summary from 26 August provided a bit more information on the administrative appeals route, It suggests that students could also make an administrative appeal if there was “a failure to take into account important information about a student’s likely performance that should have been included and was taken into account for other students.”
The deadline for schools to lodge appeals with an exam board is 17 September 2020.
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Malpractice/Maladministration appeals
Students can make malpractice or maladministration appeals if they believe that their CAG was influenced by things other than evidence about their academic performance. This includes if they think their CAG was influenced by bias or discrimination.
If students are worried about bias or discrimination, they should first complain to their school or college, following their complaints policy. If they can show “something specific or something surprising” about their grades that the school or college can’t explain, they should appeal their case to the exam board.
If the exam board thinks there has been malpractice or maladministration, they’ll consider whether the student’s calculated grades are wrong. The exam board has the power to change the student’s grade if malpractice is proved.
Read examples of when this appeal route might apply in the Ofqual guidance
The deadline for appeals is 17 September 2020. It’s important that schools respond in a timely manner to any complaints.
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Autumn Exams
Students can sit exams in the Autumn if they weren’t awarded grades in the summer, or want to try to improve the grade they were awarded. They can take as many subjects as they want, but for any subject they sit, they need to take all papers in that subject.
The school or college that entered the student for Summer 2020 exams is responsible for entering them for autumn series if the student wishes. This applies to private candidates too. If the student has moved, the school or college can agree alternative arrangements.
The normal range of reasonable adjustments should be available for disabled students taking exams.
Student can use whichever grade is higher between their calculated grade from Summer 2020 or their Autumn 2020 exam grade.
Deadlines for autumn exam entry
- AS & A levels: 4 September 2020
- GCSEs except English language and maths: 18 September 2020
- GCSEs in English language and maths: 4 October 2020
Autumn Exam dates
- AS & A levels: 5 October to 23 October 2020
- GCSEs: 2 November to 23 November 2020
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Our education solicitors can advise parents, schools, or colleges on any aspect of the DSAR or appeals process. Contact us today to find out more.
