Arts Award

Is my Arts Award moderation going ahead?

Centres who have had their moderations postponed in relation to Trinity’s current suspension of exams and awards are now able to submit young people’s work digitally for remote moderation.

The newly available ‘remote online moderation’ enables all centres with a moderation booking originally scheduled between 18 March and 31 July to complete their moderations via digital online submission. All centres with a moderation originally scheduled within the timeframe will be notified and guided on how to submit work digitally.

Remote online moderation replaces all normal face-to-face and postal moderation options, and will be the only moderation option available until we are able to return to normal processes. We are happy to take bookings for 1 August onwards, though these may be postponed or transfered to our alternative options at a later date if needed. 

Due to the level of uncertainty around how everyday life and working conditions are being affected by the Coronavirus outbreak, we recommend that centres planning on booking moderation the next few months deliver and prepare young people’s work in a digital format to ensure the moderation can go ahead if normal moderation options are not available at the scheduled time. Further information is available on the Arts Award website.

Advice on creating digital evidence and portfolios is available on Arts Award Voice and Arts Award blog.

What should I do if I have started an Arts Award project prior to the Coronavirus outbreak and I am unable to continue to deliver it due to government restrictions?

We have adapted the assessment of Arts Award in response to the Coronavirus outbreak so as not to disadvantage young people who were part way through their qualification and are unable to complete the work due to government restrictions. If your centre is not able to continue to work with young people remotely or defer delivery to later in the year, but the young people have already completed at least 50% of the requirements of the Arts Award qualification they were working towards, you will be able to apply to use an adapted assessment process in order to calculate young people’s results. For Arts Award the arrangement falls under Ofqual’s extraordinary regulatory framework.

The adapted assessment process enables advisers to calculate young people’s projected result. Advisers will be guided to make an assessment based on young people’s progress so far and whether their trajectory would have led to satisfactory achievement of the activities. Under these arrangements, Trinity will continue to moderate a sample of the adviser assessments.

For information on the requirements that centres will need to meet to apply for assessment under this framework, please see the centre request guidance. If you need further advice, please contact the Arts Award support team.

This special arrangement is not applicable to Arts Award Discover, where moderation is not required, and submissions are continuing as normal at the present time.

I meet the requirements to use the adapted assessment, what will I need to do to have the work moderated?

All centres who are approved to use the adapted assessment will need to complete a specially developed assessment report form for each young person they are submitting for moderation. This allows us to understand the progress of young people in the award for the activity they have not been able to undertake.

All centres are still required to have young people’s work and the adviser assessments moderated. Trinity are conducting moderations via remote online moderation only. This means all centres will be required to digitise young people’s work for submission to Trinity.

Remote online moderation prioritises the safety of our customers and Arts Award moderators during this time.

What should I do if I am not able to provide digital evidence of young people’s work for remote online moderation?

If it is not feasible to convert young people’s work towards Arts Award to a digital format, our recommendation is that moderation is postponed until later in the year when face-to-face moderations restart.

In the meantime, you should still make your application for adapted assessment, so we have a record of your request. At the present time we are unable to confirm when face-to-face moderation might be available, so we want to keep in touch with you to ensure young people do not miss out on having their work submitted for moderation.

In your application you will be able to state if you are able to digitise young people’s work for the purposes of moderation. If you need to moderate before the end of the academic year but are unable to digitise the work, then you should get in touch with the Arts Award team to discuss your circumstances at moderation.team@trinitycollege.co.uk

What about Discover certificate orders?

Currently Discover certificate orders are running as usual. Please refer to our page for Discover submissions for instructions. You can change the delivery address for your certificates if your usual office building is closed, please notify the moderation team of this when making your request for certificates.

Will my certificates arrive as normal?

Yes, our secure certificate printers are still operational and we are happy to send these out.  If your centre, venue or school is closed and you wish the certificates to be sent to an alternative address please notify the moderation team once your moderation booking is confirmed or you make your Discover certificate order.

Is my Arts Award training course going ahead?

Following the latest government advice about the need for increased social distancing and avoiding non-essential travel, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone all adviser training scheduled to take place between 18 March and 31 July.

We are in contact with affected people to discuss the possibility of either postponing adviser training to a later date, or offering alternative adviser training options, which will become available in the coming weeks.

Are Trinity offices still open?

Trinity’s offices in the UK won’t be open as of 18 March 2020 but Trinity staff are set up to work independently and will be responding to emails and calls as usual. Please do feel free to get in touch if you have questions or concerns and we will do our best to respond. Please call 0207 820 6178 or email artsawardenquiries@trinitycollege.co.uk. Please note that we are working with a reduced team and may not be able to respond in the usual timeframes, also some phone lines are not being monitored, a recorded message will tell you if this is the case.