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Out-of-school learners and students studying subjects entirely outside of school – Your questions answered
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This supplementary information is provided in order to support students, teachers and schools in implementing the processes developed to allow students studying subjects outside of school and out-of-school learners to access accredited grades in Leaving Certificate 2021.
If you have a question, you should first consult the following documents:
Please note that this information is subject to change from time to time but the most current information on all matters relating to Leaving Certificate examinations and the Accredited Grades process will be available on an ongoing basis on gov.ie/LeavingCertificate .
If you have a query, please read the various guides available at gov.ie/LeavingCertificate in the first instance. If you cannot find a response to your query, please submit a request for an update to gov.ie to this email address: LCinfo@education.gov.ie
This webpage will be updated regularly and the latest date of amendments will be shown at the top.
The Panel of Registered Teachers can award a different estimated percentage mark to that provided by the teacher, but in order to do so must have additional evidence on which to base their professional judgement. All decisions made by the Panel should be based on the evidence and information provided by, in this case, the registered teacher.
Provision has been made for the Panel to seek evidence as required: this is outlined in the Guide for Schools and Students on implementing the Accredited Grades Process for Out-of-School-Subjects and Out-of-School Learners:
The Panel of Registered Teachers must consider all evidence submitted for its consideration including any provisional estimated marks before reaching a professional judgement with respect to the final estimated mark to be submitted to the school principal.
If one of the core members of the Panel of Registered Teachers feels that they have a conflict of interest in a particular case, they should remove themselves from involvement in that case. The principal should arrange for another teacher to take their place on the Panel while the particular case is being reviewed.
Students who are out-of-school learners or studying subjects outside of school cannot be provided with an Accredited Grade, even as a contingency, if they have not proactively engaged in the Accredited Grades process. If they have not completed relevant OOS forms and signed declarations or have not provided evidence of their learning in the relevant subject(s) the Panel of Registered Teachers will be unable to provide an estimated percentage mark.
When teachers/tutors/students are choosing examples of evidence of student engagement and learning to submit to the Panel of Registered Teachers for review, the following list serves to outline possible examples. It should not be viewed as either prescriptive or exhaustive.
Evidence submitted may include:
• the student’s written assignments/tasks, for example examination questions and essays
• records of the student’s performance in topic tests and end-of-year assessments, which may include results and or corrected tests
• coursework
• portfolios and projects
• the student’s own notes which demonstrate student engagement with the subject syllabus or specification
• any other records of student engagement and learning in a subject area
To support the Accredited Grades Aide in preparing student files for review by the Panel of Registered Teachers, it would be preferable if students could provide hard copy evidence of their engagement and learning as opposed to electronic evidence. It should be noted that each item submitted should be numbered and labelled as detailed on relevant forms (Form OOS 4 or Form OOS 5) provided in the Guide for Schools and Students on implementing the Accredited Grades Process for Out-of-School-Subjects and Out-of-School Learners.
It is expected that most schools/centres will have to set up a Panel of Registered Teachers to review evidence of learning submitted either by students studying subjects outside of school or by out-of-school learners.
It is likely that most schools will have some students who, in addition to the subjects they study in school, have also undertaken study of an extra subject entirely outside of school. Though less likely, schools/centres may also be required to act as a host school/centre for an out-of-school learner who has arranged to sit the June examinations in the school.
In both these instances, a school will need to establish a Panel of Registered Teachers following the guidance provided in the Guide for Schools and Students on implementing the Accredited Grades Process for Out-of-School-Subjects and Out-of-School Learners. However, if there are no students in any of these two categories, a school/centre will not be required to set up a Panel of Registered Teachers.
Students who are studying a subject in school but getting some extra tuition (‘grinds’) outside of school are not included in the category of ‘Out-of-School Subjects’. They can only get an estimated mark through their subject teacher in their school. ‘Out-of-School Subjects’ refers to students who are enrolled in, and studying in, a school on a full time basis but who are also studying an extra subject, or subjects, entirely outside of school.
Students are only classified as ‘out-of-school learners’ if they are entered for the examinations as an external candidate and are not attending for fulltime tuition at any school, or private college, recognised by the State Examinations Commission (SEC). This category includes students who are being home schooled.
If students are absent from school for some time for whatever reason, but are still enrolled in a school, then they are not considered to be an out-of-school learner. Schools should include them along with all other students in the in-school Accredited Grades process for Leaving Certificate 2021. A notice on the Home Tuition Grant Scheme and Accredited Grades has been circulated to school. If a student has been availing of the home tuition grant scheme for the duration of the Leaving Certificate cycle and has not engaged with the school during this period (i.e. for two academic years), the school may opt to include the student as part of the out-of-school process for 2021.
If students have been receiving tuition, in the context of an adapted education plan, while absent from school due to being at very high risk to COVID-19, evidence of learning from that tuition should be considered by the school when it is completing the in-school estimation of marks for the relevant subjects. If they have not already done so, students should share the work they have been doing with the relevant teachers before the estimation of marks is completed during the period 14 – 28 May 2021.
Teachers/tutors providing tuition outside of school will be asked to review and share the evidence of students’ learning available to them and to provide or suggest an estimated mark on their likely performance in the subject. They will need to be familiar with, and follow, all relevant guidance set out in the following documents.
They will be required to cooperate with a panel of registered teachers in the school who may contact them to discuss the basis for the estimate that they have provided. The final estimated mark will be determined by the panel of registered teachers in the school.
The roles that external teachers/tutors will play in the process of achieving Accredited Grades is described more fully in the Guide to Accredited Grades for Leaving Certificate 2021 for (a) Out-of-School Subjects, and (b) Out-of-School Learners (March 2021). If the person proving tuition outside of a school is a registered teacher/tutor, they will be asked to provide estimated mark/s for consideration by a panel of registered teachers. If the person providing tuition is not a registered teacher/tutor, they will be asked to suggest estimated mark/s for consideration by a panel of registered teachers.
For the purposes of the Accredited Grades system for Leaving Certificate 2021, the term ‘registered teacher/tutor’ is taken to mean a person who must be
• Currently registered as a teacher with the Teaching Council of Ireland, or
• Have previously been registered with the Teaching Council of Ireland and not have been removed from the register for cause such as professional misconduct, or
• Teaching in a centre for education recognised by the Minister for Education, or
• Teaching in a centre recognised by the SEC for examination purposes.
It will be the responsibility of teachers/tutors to provide proof of their registration or employment status where applicable.
Institutions providing tuition will know if they are a recognised school or centre for education (that is, recognised by the Minister for Education under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998), or if they are a centre recognised by the SEC for examination purposes. Students should ask the principal/manager/coordinator for clarification.
There are no time limits set for how long students studying subjects out-of-school, or out-of-school learners, must have been receiving tuition outside of a school setting in order to receive an Accredited Grade. However, the person providing tuition should only review the evidence of the student’s learning that is available to them from the time that they have worked with the student.
If students have worked with a number of external teachers/tutors for a particular subject, they should ask the person whom they consider to be best placed to give evidence on their behalf. This might be the person with whom they have studied most recently as they will have the most up-to-date view of the student’s progress. Alternatively, it may be the person with whom the student studied the longest. If they are agreeable, teachers/tutors may collaboratively review and consider the evidence of students’ learning: but, students should only provide the name of one teacher or tutor to the school.
Section 7.3 of the Guide to Accredited Grades for Leaving Certificate 2021 for (a) Out-of-School Subjects and (b) Out-of-School Learners (March 2021) sets out the expectations of students who have to provide written evidence of their learning for consideration by a panel of registered teachers. Students are advised to be mindful of the guidance provided to teachers and seek to provide similar evidence to the panel.
Specific criteria have not been set for what should be included in evidence submitted for consideration by the panel of registered teachers. It is the student’s responsibility to provide written evidence of their learning and to make the best case possible.
Evidence should be provided in a timely manner. It will not be possible to submit supplementary or extra evidence after the panel has concluded its considerations during the period from 14 to 28 May 2021.
If students have received results in a previous sitting of the Leaving Certificate, certified copies of these results may be submitted as part of a range of evidence.
Students who have already registered for Leaving Certificate subjects will be able to amend their details on the Portal in late April/early May and apply for Accredited Grades in those subjects at that time if they have not already done so.
In the meantime, they should use the Initial Information Form (OOS1) to let their school, or host school in the case of out-of-school learners, know that they wish to be included in the Accredited Grades process.
Schools can only act as a host-school for external candidates who are already registered to sit the written examinations and who have permission to sit their written examinations in that school (with one exception – see below).
Out-of-school learners registered for Leaving Certificate 2021 must find a host school, or host centre of learning, recognised by the SEC for the purpose of holding examinations, to oversee the submission of estimated marks on their behalf. The host school/centre will be the school, or centre of learning, where they had arranged to sit the written examinations in June.
Students who do not already have a candidate number cannot enter for the either the June examinations or to receive Accredited Grades. Registration for inclusion in Leaving Certificate 2021 is closed: it is not possible to enter for Leaving Certificate 2021 at this time.
Exception to host-school requirement: A small number of students have been assigned to take their examinations in June at either Overend Hall or Marino Centre of Education in Dublin as they do not have a host school for the written examinations. This arrangement is sufficient for the examinations. However, if you are one of these students and wish to receive Accredited Grades, you should contact a recognised school/centre and ask them to accept you for the Accredited Grades process set out in this Guide. The Department of Education will contact you for details of this school in due course. Please do not contact the SEC as it does not have a role in finding schools for this purpose.
One of the key principles underpinning the Accredited Grades system is the reliance placed on teacher professionalism. In no small measure, the integrity of the entire process is based on the premise that members of this regulated profession can be relied upon to uphold relevant professional standards.
Teachers/tutors completing Form OOS 3 or Form OOS 4 are required to sign a declaration to confirm the following:
If teachers/tutors are satisfied to complete Form OOS 3 or Form OOS 4 and sign the relevant declaration, the process should proceed as outlined in the Guide for Schools and Students on implementing the Accredited Grades Process for Out-of-School Subjects and Out-of-School Learners. As long as the relevant declarations are signed, the Examinations Aide, or the Panel of Registered Teachers, is not required to investigate the authenticity of evidence presented to it for review. However, in reaching a decision on an estimated mark, the Panel of Registered Teachers should use its professional discretion if it deems that evidence presented to it is clearly not the work of the candidate.
If the teachers/tutors in question have any doubts regarding the basis and validity of the estimated percentage mark they will submit for consideration by the Panel of Registered Teachers, and where they feel that providing an estimated percentage mark may compromise their professional integrity, they should advise the student in question to apply for an Accredited Grade using Form OOS 5.
Students studying subjects outside of school, and out-of-school learners, applying for Accredited Grades must ensure that information and evidence of learning is made available for review by a Panel of Registered Teachers. As long as students, or the persons providing them with tuition, have completed and signed all the relevant forms, the Panel of Registered Teachers must review whatever evidence is put before it. The Panel must reach a professional judgement on the student’s likely performance in Leaving Certificate 2021 and award an estimated percentage mark which may range from 0.00% to 100.00%.
It is recognised that, given the special circumstances that arise from COVID-19, flexibility is required with respect to how meetings are organised. In order to balance the need for a practical and sensible level of caution with the need to provide a supportive environment for the Panel, meetings may be organised in person and/or remotely.
Regardless, of how the meeting is transacted, all Panel of Registered Teachers members should have access to the evidence of student’s learning and the completed forms. Care must be taken that documents are treated, and conversations are conducted, in a manner that is in compliance with the school’s data protection policies.
The Panel of Registered Teachers should review all evidence submitted by the student, or by the person providing the student with tuition. The evidence submitted may include certified results from a previous Leaving Certificate as part of the range of evidence that is presented to the Panel. The Panel should consider the possibility of the student achieving the same grade in 2021 as they achieved in the previous sitting of the Leaving Certificate.
All Accredited Grades will be calculated by reference to the final subject level selection made by the candidate on the Candidate Self Service Portal. If a candidate changes level in a subject on the day of the examinations and has also opted for Accredited Grades, their examination result will be at a different level to their Accredited Grade in that subject. In such cases, the comparison of the better of the examination result and the Accredited Grade will be made by reference to established equivalences between Higher, Ordinary and Foundation levels so that the candidate receives the result which is most advantageous to them.
In the case of out-of-school subjects or out-of-school learners, it is the responsibility of the student to provide evidence of their learning appropriate to the level in which they have chosen to receive an Accredited Grade.
Teachers should give an estimated percentage mark at the level indicated on the Accredited Grades Matrix. For example, if a student applies for an Accredited Grade at Higher Level on the CSSP, then the Panel of Registered Teachers may only give an estimated mark at Higher Level.
If a student has been studying at Ordinary Level and the evidence presented reflects their learning at Ordinary Level but the student has now opted to receive an Accredited Grade at the Higher Level, it is quite possible that the student will receive a relatively low estimated mark at the Higher Level.
Conversely, if a candidate has been studying reasonably successfully at the Higher Level and opts to receive an Accredited Grade at the Ordinary Level, the estimated mark could be relatively high at the Ordinary Level.
Students have been asked to identify on Form OOS 2 if they have been granted a Reasonable Accommodation at the Certificate Examinations (RACE) by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) and have been instructed to provide a copy of the SEC decision letter granting these accommodations with their application form.
Prior to determining the estimated percentage mark submitted for a student in a subject, the Panel of Registered Teachers have been asked to ensure that they have taken into account any RACE relevant to the evidence of learning presented.
Applications for the 2021 RACE scheme will have been made on one of four grounds as follows: (1) Learning Difficulty (2) Hearing Difficulty (3) Visual Difficulty (4) Physical Difficulty. (It should be noted that the application process for the 2021 Leaving Certificate has closed)
Some examination accommodations involve a ‘waiver’ or ‘exemption’, which means that there is an element or elements of the discipline that these students will not be examined on. However, it should be noted that a close familiarity with the details of the scheme of Reasonable Accommodations operated by the State Examinations Commission is not necessary in order to make the professional judgements required. It is the underlying principles of the scheme that are most important. Key among these are that the arrangements are not intended to compensate for any lack of achievement resulting from a physical, visual, hearing and/or learning difficulty but to remove, as far as possible, any barriers to the students’ displaying their true underlying levels of achievement.
Where a student has been granted such a waiver or an exemption, then any deficiency that the evidence of student’s learning might display in respect of the element waived should be ignored when arriving at an estimated percentage mark.
For the purposes of the Accredited Grades system for Leaving Certificate 2021, the term ‘registered teacher’ is taken to mean a person who must–
• Be currently registered as a teacher with the Teaching Council of Ireland, or
• Have previously been registered with the Teaching Council of Ireland and not have been removed from the register for cause such as professional misconduct, or
• Be teaching in a centre for education recognised by the Minister for Education
• Be teaching in a centre recognised by the SEC for examination purposes.
The Panel/s of Registered Teachers will be composed of two core members and the third member may vary depending on the subjects under review. Ideally, the Accredited Grades Aide should not be a member of the Panel of Registered Teachers. This is to prevent any actual or perceived conflict of interest which may arise if one was to assume the role of the Accredited Grades Aide as well as being a Panel member. It is acceptable to source Panel members from other schools/centres. However, they should be registered teachers within the definition provided above.
It is recognised that in three curricular language subjects–Arabic, Japanese and Russian–the numbers of available registered teachers in Ireland are very small and that these subjects are often studied by candidates as subjects out-of-school or by out-of-school learners. Despite every reasonable effort, it may be impossible for the principal of a school to ensure that the membership of the Panel of Registered teachers has the necessary competence to engage with the written evidence of learning presented by a candidate of these languages.
In these circumstances, the principal may engage a person, who is not a registered teacher within the definition provided above but who, in the opinion of the principal, has a level of competence in the language to be able to advise the Panel of Registered Teachers regarding the contents and standards of work in the written evidence of learning presented by a candidate. The Panel of Registered Teachers will consider the advice of this person in its deliberations. However, the final decision on the estimated mark to be submitted to the principal will be made by the three members of the Panel.
The additional person engaged to advise the Panel will be remunerated at the same rate used to pay the Panel members.
Students completing Form OOS 5 are required to sign declarations to authenticate that the evidence provided is their own work. It is essential that the Accredited Grades Aide ensures that students have completed the relevant part of Form OOS 5 before the evidence submitted by the student is presented for review by the Panel of Registered Teachers.
Details of special arrangements for students of non-curricular languages are set out in Section 5 of the Guide to Accredited Grades for Leaving Certificate 2021 for (a) Out-of-School Subjects and (b) Out-of-School Learners (March 2021).
It is very important to note that this is the only route to an Accredited Grade in these languages for Leaving Certificate 2021 and thus all students of non-curricular languages are strongly advised to take the proficiency assessment to be held in May 2021, as well as completing the examinations in June. All students of non-curricular languages registered to take the Leaving Certificate in that subject may take the proficiency assessment in May whether or not they have applied for an Accredited Grade.
If a student does not take the proficiency assessment in May, their Leaving Certificate result will be based on the June examinations.
In the event that a student does not take the proficiency assessment, and later does not take the examination in June, for any reason, it will not be possible for them to receive a grade in their non-curricular language.
Please note, unless, students have applied for an Accredited Grade in their non-curricular language on the Candidate Self-Service Portal (CSSP) , they will not receive an Accredited Grade even where they have completed the Proficiency Assessment. Therefore, they must, if they have not already done so, register for an Accredited Grade in their non-curricular language during the period when the Candidate Self-Service Portal (CSS) reopens between 27 April and 1 May 2021.
The Leaving Certificate non-curricular languages (NCLs) are:
| Bulgarian | Finnish | Polish |
| Croatian | Hungarian | Portuguese |
| Czech | Latvian | Romanian |
| Danish | Lithuanian | Slovakian |
| Dutch | Maltese | Slovenian |
| Estonian | Modern Greek | Swedish |