It is school policy not to enter girls for any subject that they are studying externally unless we offer the same syllabus ourselves and are therefore going to have the processes in place for the papers offered.

All candidates who are entered for any public examination are allocated a Unique Candidate Identifier number (UCI), which means that their progress through the National Assessment network (GCSEs, A-Levels, BTECs, City and Guilds etc.) can be tracked at all times. This is an advantage to all, since any claims (during one’s lifetime) to have attained particular qualifications can be quickly endorsed by the different Examination Boards who have every candidate’s achievements catalogued under this UCI. However, if a girl takes a public exam externally she will be allocated a UCI by her external centre, which will not link this qualification with those taken within the school. At a later date, she will find that her records are inadequate and inaccurate when she (and Universities/employers) needs to gain access to them from the Examination Boards.

Consequently, whenever a girl is being entered for a public examination, which she will sit at a different venue from the school, she should collect her UCI number from the Examinations Office. Entries are submitted early in the Spring term, so the UCI number should be collected in good time to ensure that the external centre has enough time to process it.

A letter is sent out via Schoolcomms in the Autumn term containing the above information and a tear off slip. This can be used to request a UCI number for a future exam or to inform the school of a UCI number already allocated by an external centre, so that discrepancies can be avoided.

To download a copy of the UCI letter click here