Moderation is the process of validating the adviser’s assessment of the young people’s work.
Young people work towards their Arts Award with a trained Arts Award adviser. The adviser is the primary internal assessor for young people’s work.
Moderation involves a Trinity moderator looking at a representative sample of the young people's work to validate the adviser's assessment. The purpose of the moderation is to ensure that the adviser has marked the work accurately and that there is consistency to the marking.
Trinity operates an External Quality Assurance model which means that not every centre will be moderated every time it enters young people for Arts Award. Where moderation is required, it will take place online via our portfolio submission platform.
Once you enter young people via the centre portal, we will notify you via email within two-three working days whether your centre has been selected to be moderated. The moderation notification email will be sent to the centre contact that entered young people via the centre portal and will provide information about next steps.
Trinity will select and request only a sample of portfolios across the entire cohort to be submitted for moderation, and not the portfolios of all young people entered for Arts Award. For full details on the moderation process, read the Arts Award Moderation Guide.
Centres need to prepare the sample portfolios in digital format and complete an evidence locator form for each portfolio selected in the sample. The evidence locator form must signpost the moderator to the specific evidence provided for each part of the award within the portfolio.
Centres must submit the selected portfolios and accompanying evidence locator forms within two weeks of the notification email via our online portfolio submission platform.
If your centre is selected to be moderated, we will send you your moderation result within approximately four weeks and issue certificates within eight weeks of the date you entered young people for Arts Award. Find out more about Arts Award certificates.
Please read our Best Practice Guidebook and the Arts Award Qualifications and Adviser - Training Terms and Conditions (updated: Dec 2023).