Transferring between academic years for A Level purposes

Hi Mike

So, there's no *official* funding rule definition of the gap. The month thing is because they'll appear on the PDSAT report if it's longer than a month, but that's so you can then explain it to auditors (and "they stopped one in July and didn't start the new one til September" is a reasonable explanation).

In fact, the main thing you need to be careful of is the 120 day gap which QAR uses. Any transfer where there's not a new start within 120 days will be considered a fail on your QAR, but assuming they get to June this year and start the new one in September it should be fine (almost as though that's why they settled on 120 days for it...)

Thanks Steve. That will explain why I can't find a definitive definition!

PDSAT reports transfer where there is no corresponding transferred on aim starting within a calendar month, the implications are Inappropriate recording of transfers may lead to a mis-statement of the funding claimed and/or result in enhanced qualification achievement rates.  Providers must be able to evidence that a transfer has taken place.

The funding rules do not stipulate any time period for transfers but within the funding year you must stipulate the status of each aim as a transfer, withdrawal, completed or continuing in the final return, it would be difficult to justify a transfer where they have withdrawn prior to the end of the teaching (academic) year.

The date of withdraw or transfer is always the last day in learning.

Martin - when you say that when there is no corresponding transferred on aim starting within a calendar month, the implications are Inappropriate recording of transfers may lead to a mis-statement of the funding claimed and/or result in enhanced qualification achievement rates, does this apply between academic years when the duration-gap is longer? Would I need to simply keep the original aim's status as 'continuing', and then enrol on the 2nd year aim (in the following academic year), transfer off it, and use the last teaching date (from the previous year, say 26/06/22) as the last day of learning?

My view is that it is the status that applies at the end of the academic year R14 and that it should be a withdrawal as a new aim has not started within the same year but if the aim was continuing at year end this would be carried over to the next year where a transfer may be recorded as it is known the learner has returned and started the new aim.

Martin - Understood, thank you. Just one last thing so I'm clear in my mind about this - If I 'continue' the learner into the following academic year, and then transfer them (per your reply), do I still use the last day of learning from the previous year (i.e 26/06/22) if they don't actual attend a lesson in the new year of the aim they are transferring off of? 

No use the same date for the transfer as the start date of the new aim.

Thank you very much for your time and clarity.

Some interesting thoughts here regarding transferring between A Level subjects at the end of the first year. If a learner were to be transferred at the end of the year because they had achieved a poor mock exam result, in the hope that they could achieve a better grade in a different A Level subject, would this be acceptable under the current rules? I feel it should be a withdrawal, but the official guidance isn't clear. Any ideas appreciated.