Dance - Visiting assessment
Preparations for visiting assessment for Dance are well underway.
Assessment periods
All training meetings for Dance are now complete and visiting assessors (VAs) will start to contact you to organise assessment dates
The assessment period for National 5 and Higher Dance is Monday 10 February – Friday 25 April.
Organising assessment dates
Please be as flexible as possible when agreeing visit dates with your VAs. They can be given a number of centres to visit and will also have their own centre’s visits to accommodate. We recommend having a range of possible dates available to discuss with your allocated VA.
You should treat visiting assessment with the same importance as question paper exams. Please ensure that suitable accommodation is available. A quiet space must be made available to the VA for reading and marking of the National 5 and Higher choreography reviews.
Please ensure that teachers and lecturers are available to support with running these exams. For National 5 and Higher Dance the designated centre assessor must be free for the entire day to participate in the collaborative marking with the VA.
Your candidates must be available for the duration of the assessment periods and must not miss the assessment due to a holiday arrangement. On the day of your VA visit all candidates being assessed should be available for the complete duration of the day.
Candidate marksheets and information for teachers and lecturers
We dispatched candidate marksheets and a copy of the information for teachers and lecturers to all centres on Monday 20 January.
Please ensure you have all documents listed in the information for teachers and lecturers available for the VAs arrival.
For National 5 and Higher Dance please ensure completed choreography reviews have been preliminary marked by the designated centre assessor before the VA visit.
Centre release
We rely on centres to provide release for VAs where requested. This important aspect of candidate assessment can only be sustained by working in partnership, and we hope that we can count on your support again in 2025.
It's essential for the smooth running of visiting assessment that centres allow teachers and lecturers to be absent from their centre to conduct assessment for candidates throughout Scotland.
VAs may need to reduce their centre visits or withdraw from visiting assessment duties for various reasons. Please only ask teachers and lecturers to withdraw from these duties in exceptional circumstances. When a VA withdraws, we need to re-allocate their centres to another VA. This can lead to delays in arranging visit dates and an increase in the time that VAs need to be away from their own candidates. Keeping withdrawals to a minimum will help improve the experience for candidates, centres, teachers and lecturers, and SQA appointees.
Queries
If you have any queries about visiting assessment (for example candidate mark sheets, or organising assessment dates) please email visiting.examining@sqa.org.uk.