News & Updates

Following the recent tutor catch-up and quality assurance activities, STA would like to reiterate the role of an external assessor for aquatic teaching qualifications.

Practical Teaching Assessment

The external assessor is responsible for observing the learners to determine whether they have met the STA required standard and can be deemed competent. They must ensure the qualification assessment strategy is adhered to, for example ensuring there are 4 participants per learner for the assessment or between 2 – 4 pairs for the STA Award in Aquatic Teaching – Baby and Pre-School Swimming assessment. Following completion of the practical assessment, external assessors must give feedback / debrief to learners.

The Practical Marking Sheet – Practical Teaching Assessment section, must be completed and signed by the external assessor. If the MCQ assessment has been completed, the Theory Assessment section of the Practical Marking Sheet and Overall Learner Competency section can be completed

If the practical teaching assessment is being conducted in the morning with learners completing the MCQ in the afternoon, the external assessor must still complete the Practical Teaching Assessment section and sign the Practical Marking Sheet. However, the Theory Assessment section and Overall Learner Competency section can be completed by the tutor once these have been completed.

Learner Portfolios

The work products, scheme of work, lesson plans, lesson evaluation form and risk assessments, within the learner portfolios are assessment material. The external assessors should check the required assessed work products have been completed and marked by the tutor. External assessors do not need to countersign or mark the portfolios to check if they have been completed to a competent standard, they are only required to check the work products have been completed. If a work product has not been completed, the external assessor may notify the tutor that a specific work product is missing / incomplete.

If the practical assessment is in the morning and the work products haven’t been fully completed following tutor marking / feedback etc, this is not a cause for concern. Learners still have an afternoon of learning to complete before the end of the course.

Second Marking of MCQs

It is really important when the results are submitted to STA, only learners who have met the standard and passed the qualification are issued with a qualification certificate. The role of the second marker is to independently mark the learner’s answer papers against the tutor marking scheme. If a tutor has initially marked an answer incorrectly, this is not an issue as long as it is checked and changed, so the correct total and result is stated.
The second marker is a check to ensure the MCQ assessment results are correct. Second markers should not just agree with the initial mark, they must mark the learner answer sheet for themselves against the tutor markings scheme to ensure the correct results are entered.

An external assessor is an ideal person to second mark the MCQ Learner Answer Sheet. However, the second marker can also be another competent person, for example, if the MCQ assessment is conducted after the practical assessment. The second marker cannot be a learner, the tutor, or the IQA as they should be independent of the course; this meaning they have had no connection or potential input on the course delivery – they are independent to the course and should therefore be impartial.

Personal relationships with partners, family members or friends linked to centre personnel that could influence decision making and qualification outcomes are not an ideal person to second mark the papers. Therefore, it would be a last resort if a partner, family member, or friend is second marking the papers. Although not forbidden as we know there may be times when there is no one else for certain ATCs, it should not be a regular occurrence and we would expect some IQA activity to take place.