Schools will have to collect student performance evidence again this year in case exams are cancelled, government has confirmed, despite half of schools consulted saying it will increase workload. The Department for Education and Ofqual have . The guidance tells schools to collect and retain evidence to be used for potential teacher grades for GCSEs and A-levels. The two organisations said it was 鈥渧ery unlikely鈥 exams would be canned, but 鈥済ood public policy means having contingency, even for extremely unlikely scenarios鈥. The government faced fierce criticism for not having an 鈥渙ff-the-shelf plan B鈥 when exams were cancelled for a second time in early 2021 due to the pandemic. A three week consultation was held this term on draft guidance, which aimed to 鈥渋mprove and streamline鈥 the process by creating the 鈥渕inimum possible burden鈥, while allowing a 鈥渂roadly consistent approach鈥 across all students. But half of teachers, senior leaders and schools and colleges that responded said the arrangements would not prevent additional teacher workload. However, only 94 school and college staff replied to the consultation, which had a total of 213 responses. Only two-thirds of respondents said the guidance should remain in place beyond 2023. Ministers plan to consult on this in the summer term. ‘Guard against over-assessment’ The government and Ofqual said schools should plan test opportunities in line with their usual assessment approaches, such as mock exams. These can be varied if a school needs more evidence, they said. But they stopped short of repeating advice on the frequency of testing from last year’s guidance, which said a “sensible approach” would be to test once a term. Schools should collect plan B exams evidence, government proposes Teachers should also 鈥済uard against over-assessment鈥, and normally would 鈥渘ot need to spend longer on these assessments than they would on their existing鈥 test plans. Ofqual made some tweaks to its proposed guidance, such as clarifying evidence can be kept digitally or physically, and that students should normally only be assessed on the content they have been taught. Students should be supervised during tests, but schools don鈥檛 need to use external invigilators. Exams workload warning Overall, 158 of 213 respondents agreed the guidance was helpful. However the DfE and Ofqual said a 鈥渒ey theme鈥 in responses was the impact on teacher workload in creating, marking and moderating assessments. One senior leader responded that there was 鈥渘o question鈥 the system added to teacher workload, adding: 鈥淢arking and moderating two sets of exams instead of just one set of mock exams doubles the workload.鈥 But officials said they had not stated the number of tests that should take place. One exam board told the consultation it feared students may focus on responding to assessments rather than focus on learning opportunities. And a school said 鈥減reviously valuable formative assessments鈥 could be turned into 鈥渕agnified high-stakes鈥 tests which impacts their motivation and corrodes their 鈥渓ove for learning鈥. In , officials said the guidance aimed to help schools to use arrangements 鈥渢hat work best for them and their students鈥. Some schools said there would be costs involved, such as those associated with storing the evidence. Ofqual said it recognised this, but said costs should be 鈥減roportionate to the aim of preparing for the eventuality that exams cannot go ahead for any reason, having learnt from the experiences of the past three years鈥. The DfE will continue to monitor schools鈥 financial health and cost pressures they face, they said. Meanwhile, Ofqual has decided to go ahead with plans to provide exam aids, such as formulae and equation sheets, in 2023 GCSE maths, physics and combined science exams. More than 93 per cent of respondents said they agreed with proposals for a maths formulae sheet in 2023, and over 95 per cent supported having an equation sheet for physics and combined science.