The purpose of moderation is for CCEA to confirm that you and your colleagues have understood the levels, thereby ensuring that standards are maintained across the schools in Northern Ireland.

Your school will be required, by May each year, to submit a School Portfolio electronically to CCEA for moderation.

Schools will continue in this school year, 2010/11, to submit two Pupil Portfolios at each level they are seeking accreditation for.

When CCEA receive your School Portfolio, a team of moderators will review the work, accompanied by any teacher notes that have been provided to help explain the learning process that the pupil has gone through and either approve or unapprove the levels that your school has requested. Only the levels for which you are approved will be accredited.

Your levels will be approved and you will be accredited for those levels.

As a result of feedback from the evaluation process, the moderator will give feedback on the pieces of work in one of the Portfolios (at each level). If enough evidence is available to support the approval of the level, the moderator will not make further comments on the second portfolio.

If you have omitted to include something in a Pupil Portfolio, you will be contacted by CCEA. You will have an opportunity to send in the required piece of work.

Assigning a level to a pupil should be based on ‘best-fit’.

Bearing in mind that the purpose of Moderation is for CCEA to confirm that you and your colleagues have understood what the levels look like in practice, where possible a Pupil Portfolio should contain work all at the same level.

However, on the occasion where one piece of work within a Pupil Portfolio is deemed by a moderator to be at the level below the rest of the work within the portfolio, CCEA will use the following criteria in order to approve an overall Pupil Portfolio at the higher level:

At Levels 1 and 2: a minimum of three out of the four required Desirable Features must be covered at the appropriate level; and

At Levels 3, 4 and 5: a minimum of four out of the five required Desirable Features must be covered at the appropriate level.

If a Pupil Portfolio is found not to be at the required level, the moderator will approve it at the level which the evidence demonstrates. You will be informed of this. There will be no re-submission for re-moderation this year.

The following example will illustrate how this may look in practice.

You submit Level 4 Pupil Portfolios as part of Moderation.

The moderator finds that the evidence in your Level 4 Pupil Portfolios represents pupils working at Level 3, and not Level 4. The moderator will unapprove the portfolios at Level 4 and will approve them at Level 3.

Therefore, your school will be accredited to assess UICT at Level 3, but not at Level 4.

You will not be able to assess any pupils at Level 4 for this year.

Do not be disheartened but instead use the outcomes of this process as an opportunity to develop your school’s understanding of the standards required for the various levels.

When now making a judgement about the level that each child in your school that is taking part in the scheme has achieved, you must assess each child only at one of the levels for which your school has been accredited.

After Moderation, CCEA will contact schools to inform them of the outcomes. This will be done electronically. If your whole School Portfolio has been approved as representing the appropriate levels and range of ICT experiences, your school will be accredited to assess your pupils at the approved levels. You must now decide on the level that each pupil has achieved and inform CCEA by faxing or posting your completed ICT Assessment Record form back.

The pupils who were entered in the Scheme will also be awarded with the CCEA Certificate of Competence in UICT in June and your school will also receive a School Certificate in the following September.