As you’ll likely be aware, teachers in England will go on strike during the summer term, with members of the National Education Union (NEU) planning to strike on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May.

Further information on these strikes can be found on the NEU and Government websites.

NCFE assessments affected by strike action

On these strike days, it’s expected that many schools and colleges will close, and those that remain open may be affected by reduced staffing levels.

Whilst there are no NCFE set date and time assessments scheduled on these strike days, there are some window-based assessments underway, across our CACHE and T Level qualifications, which may be affected.

These assessments are:

If your school or college will remain open

On these days, if a school or college remains open, and the assessment can continue as planned, no further action is required.

If your school or college will close on strike action days

We have no plans to extend the above assessment windows to account for this potential disruption. Assessments scheduled in a window allow for instances such as these, and so we expect that all assessments can continue within the existing timescales published.

Should a school or college running any of the above assessments close, we’d expect the following action to be taken:

• Students are notified in advance that no assessment will take place on the strike dates
• Assessment material is securely stored, as with any other non-assessment day within a window
• Assessments are scheduled within the existing window around the strike days to ensure that students are able to complete the entire assessment within the existing windows.

Where no reasonable alternative can be found, and an extension is required to the assessment window, you should consider the assessment variation process. However, given the existing time available, we would expect all strike days to be reasonably accommodated into existing windows.

Other NCFE assessments

On-demand assessments, such as Functional Skills assessments, should be scheduled to a date and time that avoids potential industrial action.

Internal assessment, including moderated assessments for V Certs and T Levels, should continue as scheduled, working around any potential strike action.

You should liaise with your External Quality Assurer (EQA) if you believe a planned EQA review cannot go ahead, to allow for rescheduling to a new date as soon as possible.

If you have any further queries, please contact our Customer Support team at [email protected] or through Live Chat on our website.