National 5 ESOL

The alternative certification model is how National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses will be resulted this year, following the cancellation of the 2021 exams. It involves five different stages.

View the alternative certification model and see what will happen at each stage.

The Alternative Certification Model included a national quality assurance activity, carried out in May 2021. SQA appointees reviewed and provided feedback on a selection of assessment evidence from SQA centres. Subject-specific feedback has been provided to those centres for each course and level they were selected for.

The key messages report provides information on any common themes and key points from the evidence submitted and reviewed across all the selections. This report is provided for all delivering centres to reflect upon and make any appropriate adjustments.

• National 5 English for Speakers of Other Languages 2020-21 key messages
  June 2021

This explains the overall structure of the Course, including its purpose and aims and information on the skills, knowledge and understanding that will be developed.

• N5 ESOL Course Specification
  November 2019

Guidance

• National 5 ESOL: Guidance on gathering key evidence for producing estimates in session 2020-21 (154 KB)

SQA Academy course

• Determining provisional results for session 2020-21

This section provides information on marking instructions and/or the coursework assessment task(s). It includes information that centres need to administer coursework and must be read in conjunction with the course specification.

• Coursework assessment task for National 5 ESOL
  July 2017
• Guidance on conditions of assessment

For information on marks scaling please see related information

Information on the production and submission of SQA-assessed coursework for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher.

• Coursework for External Assessment (261 KB)

Additional resources session 2020-21

• Webinar recording: speaking, listening and writing  (published on the SQA secure site. This can be accessed through your SQA coordinator) 
• Candidate evidence and commentaries: Speaking and listening (published on the SQA secure site. These can be accessed through your SQA coordinator)
• Candidate evidence and commentaries: writing
• Assessing ESOL online Webinar recording (1 hour) (182.73 MB)

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Please note: For session 2020-21 there will be no external assessment for this course. However, the materials detailed below remain a useful illustration of the standards required. These should be viewed along with the National 5 to Advanced Higher Course information for 2020-21.

Examples of candidate evidence with commentaries

• Examples of candidate evidence with commentaries 

Further examples of candidate evidence and commentaries can be found on SQA¿s secure website and you can access these through your SQA co-ordinator.

Course assessment overview

• Overview of course assessment presentation with audio (24 minutes)

Changes to understanding standards materials

• Changes to published Understanding Standards materials for all subjects

Please note: Understanding Standards materials are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain up to date.

These reports provide information on the performance of candidates which it is hoped will be useful to teachers, lecturers and assessors in their preparation of candidates for future assessment.

Course Reports

• 2016 National 5 ESOL Course Report
  September 2016
• 2017 National 5 ESOL Course Report
  October 2017
• 2019 National 5 ESOL Course Report
  October 2019
• 2018 National 5 ESOL Course Report
  September 2018

Verification Reports

There was no verification activity at this level in 2017.

In 2019, a single qualification verification summary report replaced the verification key messages.

• ESOL Verification Key Messages Round 2
  June 2017
• ESOL Qualification Verification Summary Report June 2019
  June 2019
• ESOL Verification Key Messages
  October 2016
• 2016 National 5 ESOL Course Report
  October 2016
• 2015 National 5 ESOL Course Report
• ESOL Verification Key Message
  October 2015
• ESOL Verification Key Message
  July 2014
• 2014 National 5 ESOL Course Report

• ESOL: Quality Assurance - external verification

Additional CPD support

Where any particular areas of concern are identified, which are not addressed by our Understanding Standards events or support materials, we will offer free continuing professional development (CPD) training, subject to request. CPD support is subject-specific and can be tailored to cover one or more qualification level. To find out more about this service visit our CPD page.

National 5 Learning Support Material

Online resources ¿ practice assessments

These materials are intended to support ESOL candidates in improving their skills in reading, listening, speaking and writing. (You are required to have Flash version 12 or above installed to run these assessments).

Online resources ¿ practice assessments

SQA Academy

Learning support materials and online learning resources

Verification

Evidence for external verification of internally-assessed components of course assessments (466 KB)

ESOL: Quality Assurance - external verification