From the Principal #108
19th March 21
‘Creating Unique Learning Opportunities’ is our vision at DLD and this week gives us a perfect example of what can be achieved when students are prepared to “go for it”. On Wednesday, we received the BTEC exams results for our students who sat their exams in January during the national lockdown. Students have shown great resilience and strength and have been rewarded with a fantastic set of results: 100% pass, 75% Distinction, 25% Merit for BTEC Digital Media Production and 100% Pass and 51% Distinction for BTEC Business. Well done to our brilliant students and their outstanding teachers!
We now have a better understanding of what the Teacher Assessment Grades, the “TAG”, will look like for GCSE, A Level and BTEC grades this summer. Contrary to what was expected of us last year, we are not asked to predict what a student would have achieved in an exam. We must assess the students’ performance, only on the content that has been delivered to them by their teachers and be based on the evidence available. Evidence can include work that is yet to be produced and it is not limited to work already completed.
We intend to consider a wide range of assessment results (including homework, classwork, Milestone tests, Mock exams and coursework) to determine the grades students should receive. For this reason, I strongly encourage students to keep working hard. Many students will produce their best work at this stage of their academic studies. Students will have their usual Milestone tests in the week commencing Monday 26 April 2021 and the last set of assessments in the week beginning Monday 24 May 2021. We do not wish to replicate the summer exams during that week and I shall write again shortly to give you more details. There is plenty to work for and regular, disciplined work always bares fruit.
This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week and students have taken part in a challenge and submitted a creative piece of work which celebrates Neurodiversity, either relating to personal experiences or recognizing the experience of others. I applaud Charlie Pinel and his team on the fantastic work that they do every day to support our students at DLD.
This Saturday is the Spring Equinox which marks the start of the New Year and, for many of our students, it is a time of celebration, new beginnings and togetherness. For those celebrating I wish you all a joyful and Happy Nowruz and ‘Bon Courage’ to our students.
Marie-Do
Marie-Do Reza, Vice Principal (Academic)
