Preparing for moderation

Moderation takes place at the end of the assessment window. Once the assessment window closes, you’ll be asked to submit evidence for a sample of students in your cohort by way of digital submission. * Please note that for the T Level Technical Qualification in Education and Early Years, a centre visit is required and more information on this is provided below.

The moderator’s primary role is to report on a centre’s interpretation of the published assessment criteria. To do this, the moderator will review evidence submitted and apply a mark for each student. The moderator’s mark will be compared to the original mark awarded by the centre and a final mark will be applied depending on the accuracy and consistency of assessor marking. Any adjustments made to the centre marks are necessary to bring the centre’s judgements in line with the national standard.

We’ll provide a final moderation report in the Portal, with your results, on results release day with feedback on areas of good practice and areas of development. This will also confirm whether your centre’s marks were accepted without change or whether adjustments were made.

Moderators are occupational specialists who are employed by NCFE and trained in a standardised approach to ensure the criteria is being applied accurately and consistently by assessors across all centres.

Our moderators must undergo mandatory induction and training to demonstrate they can moderate in a standardised approach in line with national standards.

Our chief moderators undergo the same rigorous training and are responsible for setting the standards across their team of moderators. They achieve this through sampling moderator work, before they are assigned to centres and during the moderation window to ensure their decisions remain reliable and consistent. Chief moderators form part of the awarding team where a range of evidence, statistical data and qualification standards are reviewed to set grade boundaries.

View everything you need to know about 24/25 NEA planning here.

To help support your planning, view our key dates for visiting moderation and remote moderation.

Make the most of the support available by registering your students and booking them onto the chosen OS early through the Portal. 

Our T Level Portal and Online Assessment User Guide explains how to do this.

Registrations and bookings must be made in line with the dates outlined in the KDS available on the qualification pages.

Make the most of the support available by registering your students early through the Portal. 

Our Portal User Guide explains how to do this.

Students can be registered from the 1 September in the first year of study. The NEA and external assessment must both be taken in the final year of study.

Assessment materials will be available to download from the portal. For guidance on accessing assessment materials, view our short video.

For T Level Technical Qualification in Education and Early Years, assessment materials are available on the Education and Early Years Qualification page. For more information, please see the ‘Education and Early Years Specific Information’ section below.

Assessment materials will be available to download from the portal. For guidance on accessing assessment materials, view our short video. NEA Assessment materials will include:

• Assessment Brief and Mark Scheme (centre version)
• Assessment Brief (learner version)
• Assessor feedback to learner forms
• Upload document checklist.

It is important that you maintain accurate assessment records so they can be moderated during remote moderation. Should these records lack sufficient detail to allow remote moderation to take place, the provider will be required to observe students again, which will delay student results for the full cohort.

The Moderator will remotely view a sample of your assessment records during moderation and provide feedback on the completion of the assessment records within their moderation report.

Tips for Maintaining Accurate Assessment Records

In advance of the assessment:

• familiarise yourself with the required assessment record templates. These can be downloaded from the qualification page within the Tutor Guides.
• ensure any recording devices are fully charged and have the required storage capacity.

It is important that you maintain accurate assessment records so they can be moderated during remote moderation. Should these records lack sufficient detail to allow remote moderation to take place, the provider will be required to observe students again, which will delay student results for the full cohort.

The Moderator will remotely view a sample of your assessment records during moderation and provide feedback on the completion of the assessment records within their moderation report.

Tips for Maintaining Accurate Assessment Records

In advance of the assessment:

• familiarise yourself with the required assessment record templates. These can be downloaded from the qualification page within the Tutor Guides.
• ensure any recording devices are fully charged and have the required storage capacity.

Download our V Cert Schedule of Assessment Template

Download now

The portal will close at the end of the assessment window, as outlined in the Key Dates Schedule.

All student marks must be entered before the portal closes and any inactive students withdrawn. For guidance on submitting marks, watch our How to submit provider marks for moderation video resource.

If the assessment has different assessment window end dates, for example part 1 and part 2. Marks must be entered before the assessment window closes for each part.

Moderation can only take place once marks have been submitted for the full cohort. Failure to do this may impact final moderation, delay results and will result in an action on your annual monitoring review (AMR) report.

If you need support withdrawing a student, please contact [email protected]

If a student did not attend an assessment, submit a did not attend (DNA) mark. 

You must inform students of their marks prior to submitting to NCFE to allow students the opportunity to request a review of provider marking.

Additional Information Relating T Level Technical Qualification in Healthcare Science (Level 3) 603/7066/X

If you are delivering the above qualification, part 1: practical assessment activity (core) and part 2: practical assessment activity (pathway) has two separate assessment windows. As there is no overlap between assessment windows, providers will not be able to submit all marks (Core and Option) at the same time. Core marks must be submitted and saved by the Core deadline and then the Option marks should be added separately by the Option deadline as outlined in the Key Dates Schedule. More information relating to this can be found in this document.

For guidance on submitting marks, watch our How to submit provider marks for moderation video resource.

The portal will close at the end of the assessment window, as outlined in the Tutor Guides on the qualification pages.

All student marks must be entered before the portal closes and any inactive students withdrawn. For guidance on submitting marks, watch our How to submit provider marks for moderation video resource.

Moderation can only take place once marks have been submitted for the full cohort. Failure to do this may impact final moderation, delay results and will result in an action on your AMR report.

If you need support withdrawing a student, please contact [email protected]

If a student did not attend an assessment, submit a DNA mark. 

You must inform students of their marks prior to submitting to NCFE to allow students the opportunity to request a review of provider marking.

Once the portal closes, students selected for remote moderation will be displayed in the portal the following day.  For information watch our view students selected for moderation and upload evidence video resource.

You must upload the required evidence for each student to the portal within three working days of the assessment window closing. Checklists detailing the evidence requirements will be included with the assessment packs or supplied by your Moderator for Education and Early Years.

Following initial moderation should the Moderator need to moderate the entire cohort you will be contacted. We’ll contact the programme contact to request this so please be prepared. Once prompted we will expect evidence to be submitted via the portal in three working days.

Failure to submit evidence within the required timescales will result in delays to final moderation and student results. This will also affect your provider's risk rating following moderation. Failing to submit evidence may result in potential maladministration and will be referred to our Provider Assurance team for further review. 

Tips for Uploading Files

• File names must include the student’s name and the name of the task
• Where possible, files should be no bigger than 1GB
• Up to 10 files, with an individual file size limit of 2GB can be uploaded at one time
• Larger file sizes will take longer to upload
• Files larger than 2GB will need to be compressed
• Zip files cannot be uploaded.

More useful tips for uploading files can be found here.

If you need support uploading student evidence, contact [email protected].

Additional Information Relating T Level Technical Qualification in Healthcare Science (Level 3) 603/7066/X

If you are delivering the above qualification, part 1: practical assessment activity (core) and part 2: practical assessment activity (pathway) may have different students selected for moderation. Please ensure you check the sampling plans for both parts separately. Students selected for moderation will be displayed in the portal the day after the assessment window closes for the pathway, as outlined in the Key Dates Schedule (KDS).

Once the portal closes, students selected for remote moderation will be displayed in the portal the following day.  For information watch our view students selected for moderation and upload evidence video resource.

You must upload the required evidence for each student to the portal within three working days of the assessment window closing. Checklists detailing the evidence requirements will be included with the assessment packs.

Following initial moderation should the Moderator need to moderate the entire cohort you will be contacted. We’ll contact the programme contact to request this so please be prepared. Once prompted we will expect evidence to be submitted via the portal in three working days.

Failure to submit evidence within the required timescales will result in delays to final moderation and student results. This will also affect your provider's risk rating following moderation. Failing to submit evidence may result in potential maladministration and will be referred to our Provider Assurance team for further review. 

Tips for Uploading Files

• File names must include the student’s name and the name of the task
• Where possible, files should be no bigger than 1GB
• Up to 10 files, with an individual file size limit of 2GB can be uploaded at one time
• Larger file sizes will take longer to upload
• Files larger than 2GB will need to be compressed
• Zip files cannot be uploaded.

More useful tips for uploading files can be found here.

If you need support uploading student evidence, contact [email protected].

The EYE OS assignment 2 part 1 begins in September. Your Moderator will plan their visit to observe the assessment of each of the competence-based criteria and discuss their assessment decisions with you, the visit will be for one full day. They will plan to observe each criteria at least once during the day, this will most likely be across a range of students.

You must ensure that the observations scheduled for the day of the Moderator visit cover all competence-based criteria via either observation or professional discussion with the student.

In the event that not all criteria are observed during the visit, a follow up professional discussion will be arranged within five working days with the assessor, which will take place remotely, via Teams. This meeting will also provide the opportunity for feedback on assessment decisions made on the day of the visit.

Following the remote meeting, providers will receive a moderation report detailing the outcome of the visit and if applicable will include actions for the provider to take forward.

Stage 1 moderation for assignment 2 part 2 will take place in the assignment 2 part 2 assessment window (between February and May, as per the KDS).

A maximum of three students in the sample will be completed via face-to-face moderation, the remainder of the sample will be moderated remotely.

Once your Moderator has selected their sample for stage 1 moderation, they will work with providers to determine which students will be moderated via a face-to-face visit and which will be moderated remotely.

Providers must ensure that face-to-face visits for all students are scheduled to take place within a 2-day window, dates do not need to be consecutive but must be agreed with the Moderator.

For students selected for remote moderation, providers will need to ensure that required evidence is uploaded to the portal within 10 working days of the assessment taking place. Dates for this activity should be agreed with the Moderator.

Further remote moderation will take place once the assessment window closes. This is stage 2 and 3 moderation. This is only required if a provider is marking out of tolerance during stage 1, meaning further sampling is required.

Providers will be contacted via email should further samples be required. Information on this can be located on in the ‘View Students Selected for Remote Moderation’ section above.

If further sampling via remote moderation is required, you will be required to submit evidence on the portal for a sample of students in the cohort. The Moderator will review evidence submitted on the portal and apply a mark for each student. The Moderator’s mark will be compared to the mark awarded by the provider and a final mark will be applied.

If the provider mark and the Moderator’s mark are within tolerance, the provider’s marks will be applied to all students in the cohort. If the marks are outside of tolerance, we’ll apply an adjusted mark to all students in the cohort.

We’ll provide a final moderation report on results day with feedback on areas of good practice and areas for development.

Once students are booked onto the OS of their choice (EYE or AT) and are ready to commence their second year of the T Level, you will be able to submit a Schedule of Assessment for that student via the Portal. The Moderator will use the Schedule of Assessment to plan their visits for assignment 2 of the OS. 

For further support on how to add or update the Schedule of Assessment please refer to the T Level System User Guide  or watch our short guidance video: How to add or amend the Schedule of Assessment in the Portal (T Level Education and Early Years).

The Schedule of Assessment provides details of the student’s industry placement, rank order, the planned dates the assessor will observe the student for assignment 2 and the planned criteria to be observed. 

When determining the rank order for your students, several factors can be considered for example, the student’s performance in year 1, the student’s level 2 achievement profile and/or their expected grades for the OS. Providers should rank students how they see fit. Numbers can be used more than once if needed (for example if a cohort is large you could rank 1-10 with several students at each number)

If you are entering an EYE part 1 observation into the Schedule of Assessment, you should use only the ‘Criteria to be covered’ box, holding the ‘ctrl’ button to select multiple criteria. Please ensure all criteria you plan to observe during the EYE part 1 observation is selected. You do not need to select anything from the structured observations options for EYE part 1.

If you are entering an EYE part 2 or AT observation into the Schedule of Assessment, you should use only the ‘Structured Observation’ box, holding the ‘ctrl’ button to select multiple SOs if they are taking place on the same day. You do not need to select any criteria in the criteria box for structured observations in part 2.

Students selected for stage 1 moderation will be selected using the provider’s Schedule of Assessment. You can read more about the Schedule of Assessment in the above sections. 

Students selected for remote moderation will be selected using the sampling guidelines below and include assessments from across a range of provider marks which include the student with the highest provider mark and the student with the lowest non-zero provider mark.

Providers will be contacted and a sampling plan will be available on the portal if further sampling is required after stage 1.

Before a moderation visit can take place, you must complete the Schedule of Assessment for each student in the portal and submit this. You must also complete and return the Provider information document - T Level Technical Qualification in Education and Early Years (Level 3). This document is available in the assessment materials area of the Portal for you to download.

No visits can take place until the Moderator receives this information or outside of the assessment window. 

On receipt of the Schedule of Assessment the Moderator will work with you to plan their visits efficiently and send you their sampling plan. Once you receive the sampling plan:

• Inform the industry placement of the moderation visit and confirm their agreement. This will be checked during the moderation review.
• Inform the students in the moderation sample that the Moderator will be observing them.

During the moderation visit your Moderator will observe structured observations for each student in the sample. They will not discuss their assessment decisions with you, as this will be checked during final moderation.

They will discuss:

• Your completion of assessment paperwork for the structured observations, by looking at previously completed records.
• Your processes for identifying assessors’ and IQAs’ training needs and how these are addressed.
• Your processes to ensure students are given appropriate access to assessment, where special arrangements are required to ensure you are following our requirements specified in our Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration Policy.
• How you ensure students’ developmental needs are matched against the requirements of the assessment and how individual assessment plans are agreed.
• Your records of placement hours and how these are maintained and show accurate tracking.

It is important that you maintain accurate assessment records so they can be moderated. Should these records lack sufficient detail to allow moderation to take place, the provider will be required to observe students again, which will delay student results for the full cohort. 

The Moderator will view a sample of your assessment records during stage one moderation and provide verbal feedback on the completion of the assessment records during the visit. 

Templates for the below assessment records are available to download from the qualification page within the Tutor Guide for assignment 2:

• Observation Planning Form
• Future Planning Form
• Observation of Skills Recording Form
• Professional Discussion Form
• Criteria assessor Judgement Guidance and Assessment Justification Document
• Final Mark Form
• Tracking documents to showing criteria achieved and target dates to meet any outstanding criteria

You may find it useful to refer to our Guidance around having a professional discussion and Guidance around conducting an observation (use this video to support this guidance).

Assessment plans must also be maintained and show how the criteria will be assessed, the criteria to be observed and/or covered through professional discussion, how the student has achieved the criteria and their placement hours.

You will find Provider Guides/Tutor Guides to the OS, Practical Skills Evidence Requirements, Assignment Briefs and Mark Schemes, KDS, Chief Moderator reports and Qualification Specific Instructions for Delivery.

You will find Sample Assessments and Mark Schemes. We’ll continue to release resources to this section throughout the session.