[Frank Lagan]

12/06/2018 at 11:32 am

Hi all
I want to do the Higher Database unit assessment rather than the website task. Can anyone please me with the task and a solution to base the unit on.
Thanks in advance
Frank

[Scott McBride]

12/06/2018 at 11:45 am

Is this for sesion 2018-2019? If so, its gone, no need for unit assessments…

[Frank Lagan]

12/06/2018 at 11:55 am

Hi Scott
I was at a meeting with Raymond and Greig and they said the same unless of course it is exceptional circumstances in which case pupils need their unit assessments.

[Sean Stratton]

12/06/2018 at 12:33 pm

That can’t be right, surely in exceptional cicumstances it’s prelim, class tests etc. The whole point of the pain of the new national structure is to reduce workload. Doing unit assessments that have content that is not in the new structure doesn’t reduce workload.

The question is what do we do with kids that will pass N5 and not cut the higher mustard. Two year higher? PC passport, Computing with Digital Media units? Surely not dust off ISDD unit assessment.

Sean

[Greg Reid]

12/06/2018 at 12:56 pm

Hi Frank

Just to clarify (as I think you’ve maybe picked us up wrong at the Falkirk meeting).

Units are only required for candidates who are not completing the whole course. In the majority of circumstances it is expected that this will apply to candidates with illness, high levels of absence or other similar circumstances. Candidates going on to sit the assignment and exam do not require units.

For candidates who apply for exceptional circumstances, following absence from the exam, Sean is correct in that units are not required as evidence. The evidence submitted can be anything of a Higher standard e.g. prelim, class tests etc. You may wish to use units for this purpose but it is not a requirement.

The same applies to N5.

Cheers
Greg

[Frank Lagan]

13/06/2018 at 8:15 am

Hi Greg
This sadly does not help in the situation where the school want the safety blanket of units only option for sqf points whether or not the pupil sits the whole exam or not. In cases of missing the exam due to illness does the evidence accrued stand as appeal level for getting the actual higher or units?

[dbrowning]

13/06/2018 at 8:32 am

Frank, I’m SQA Co-coordinator in our school and so deal with exceptional circumstances requests when required (a few every year normally). You can send in unit assessments as supporting evidence but as Greg says the main thrust of the paperwork they are looking for is the prelim and any class assessments you have. We tend to send in as much as we can to give the markers a broad overview of the candidate.

With regard to your specific question I am not aware of exceptional circumstances being used for units, in fact it doesn’t really make sense since the pupil can do the units at any point so if they were off or ill or something they can do them at another time. Exceptional circumstances relates to the exam, a pupil may have been unwell on the day of the exam or had a bereavement around it that might have affected how they perform in the exam. In these situations you submit an exceptional circumstances request and then send in the supporting evidence. As indicated this is normally the prelim and any class tests since the markers will be looking to see if the student has under-performed in their final exam compared to in other assessments. I normally make the point to all pupils sitting prelims in the school that while we cannot “appeal” in the way we used to the prelim can and does become very important to their final grade for some of them and thus they should treat them very seriously.

[Frank Lagan]

13/06/2018 at 9:11 am

Hi dbrowning
If I am reading this correctly you are saying units can be done at any time not that they are no longer required. I want to know if I can simply not do the units with my classes and cannot get a simple yes/ no answer. Until the units only option is removed along with the SQF points that go with them then they are mandatory!

[Peter Thoresen]

13/06/2018 at 9:26 am

N4 units are unchanged.

The N5 and Higher courses no longer contain any units – full stop.

The old N5/Higher units are still available to be offered as standalone units, but make no contribution to any course.

This is described in the subject updates on https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/56924.html (although the most recent one is Sep 2017).

[Greg Reid]

13/06/2018 at 9:30 am

Yes Frank. You no longer have to do the units. They are not a requirement of the revised N5 or Higher course.

If you wish to discuss this further please contact me at greg.reid@sqa.org.uk

[dbrowning]

13/06/2018 at 2:22 pm

As Greg said. The units for Higher are no longer mandatory from this session (2018 – 2019) onward. They were phased out last year for N5, this year for Higher and next year they won’t need to be done for AH.

[Frank Lagan]

15/06/2018 at 9:04 am

Thank you all for your answers. I am much happier now and contented.
🙂