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Moderation policy (including RARPAP)

This is a generic policy and may be supplemented by specific guidelines as relevant to each curriculum area.  The policy applies to all funded and full cost courses.   

Quality assurance applies to all courses at NCL: accredited, non-accredited and full cost. Recognising and Recording Progress, Achievement and Progression (RARPAP) is the process to measure the progress and achievement of learners and ensure the quality of provision.     

 There must be clear and robust evidence of the following: 

  1. A clearly documented Scheme of Learning which has been agreed and quality assured by the relevant Curriculum Quality Lead. It includes clear course aims, which have been shared with the learner(s) 
  2. Initial assessment to establish the learner’s starting point and needs 
  3. An Individual Learner Journey document, setting challenging learning objectives/outcomes for individual learners – with opportunities to review, renegotiate and where appropriate revise their learning objectives 
  4. Formative assessment – recognition and recording of progress and achievement during the programme  
  5. Summative assessment – learner assessment as appropriate and tutor review of overall progress and achievement     
  6. Assessment, trackers and logs submitted to Learner Services on completion of a learner’s aim. 

A. Accredited courses  

Exam registration – externally accredited courses only                    

The process for tutors is as follows. 

  1. An individual exam pro-forma is completed for each learner. 
  2. Check that the learning aim is correctly recorded for each learner on the pro-forma. If you require confirmation of the learning aim, please refer to the appropriate manager. 
  3. Ensure learners have given all personal details and signed and dated the pro-forma. Note that the name as it appears on the pro-forma will be the same as that on their certificate. 
  4. Submit the forms to the Exams Team/Learner Services and notify the appropriate Curriculum Manager. This needs to be done by the agreed timescale for your curriculum area. 

Post-registration and assessment of accredited candidates  

The Exams Officer/ designated curriculum contact sends the Record of Achievement (RAC)/Form C/Learner Record of Results (ROR) or other form as used by Awarding Bodies, to all tutors for completion. 

Please note that these documents can only be sent electronically to your Newcastle City Council e-mail address. 

Where applicable, your internal moderator will contact you after week 4, so if you have any queries/points of clarification about how you complete your forms, which assessments to conduct and how to conduct them, you should ask them at this point. 

Tutors need to collect the evidence for all learners, completing all forms as instructed by the Curriculum Manager.  This will vary slightly between curriculum areas. 

B. Non-accredited courses  

In order for a learner to successfully achieve a non-regulated learning aim, they need to have: 

  • Clear and robust evidence that they have met the 6 stages of RARPAP 
  • Achieved all of the core learning objectives/outcomes stated 
  • Completed at least 80% of the aim’s stipulated guided learning hours 

Moderation 

  1. The CQL and Curriculum managers will organise internal moderation (internal verification) for their relevant areas. 
  2. For external moderation at the end of a course, the external verifier will be provided with evidence and required documents.  
  3. The sample size for moderation should be 10% of the cohort.  In some circumstances the sample size may be specified by the awarding body.  Tutors and moderators will be informed if a different sample size is needed to comply with awarding body requirements. 
  4. At the end of the course, curriculum managers need to ensure all paperwork is submitted to Learner Services.  
  5. Following moderation, Learner Services and Exams will update the ILR with the learner’s achievement.   

Updated February 2026