A Levels: Government system intended to boost private school pupils as state school pupils left fuming

Almost 40% of A-level results have been downgraded in England after exams were cancelled due to coronavirus.

Some 35.6% of marks were adjusted down by one grade, 3.3% were brought down by two, and 0.2% came down by three.
Overall, an estimated 280,000 entries have been affected by the process.

This is because the Joint Council for Qualifications “standardised” schools’ predictions based on their past performance to try and maintain consistency in a year thrown into chaos by the pandemic.
Teachers were told to submit the grades they thought each student would have received if they had sat the papers, alongside a rank order of students, after exams were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Exams watchdog Ofqual says standards across the country have been maintained, with top A* and A grades rising by 2.4% to an all-time high.

The number of students accepted on to degree courses has also risen by 2.9% compared with last year.
The government has vowed not to scrap moderated results in England, like political leaders in Scotland were forced to do after criticism students from deprived backgrounds were hit harder by the algorithm.
Ofqual claimed there was no evidence of bias against pupils based on their socioeconomic status and that moderating was needed given “generous” initial assessments that predicted “implausibly” high grades in some schools.
They added they were given “ministerial direction that, as far as possible, overall results should be similar to previous years”.

But the head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the system had given a “boost for private schools” because those who’s class sizes are smaller than 15 did not have the teachers’ predictions moderated.
Former Labour schools secretary Ed Balls tweeted: “How could education Ministers and senior officials possibly not have spotted that giving greater weight to teacher assessment in smaller cohort sixth forms would bias results towards private schools and against large sixth form colleges? It’s beyond belief.”

There are three routes of appeal:
Students can use their mock exam results to argue they should have got higher grades, a school can say it is under new leadership meaning it should not be judged on old performance, and some pupils can press ahead and do the actual exams in the autumn.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he wanted to “make sure young people have the best possible options in front of them” despite the coronavirus outbreak.
But he told Sky News: “I can’t sit here and say that there won’t be a single child in this country who won’t be in a situation of where they have got a grade that isn’t a fair reflection of their work.”
There were many reports of disappointment: One student predicted three As but handed a B, C and E told Sky News “the government have completely ruined a lot of kids’ futures” and a second who had her marks downgraded said it might make her miss out on a bursary.

Geoff Barton, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he had heard “heartbreaking feedback” from teachers about “grades being pulled down in a way that they feel to be utterly unfair and unfathomable”.

Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, said “something has obviously gone horribly wrong” and thousands of students have had their future prospects “dashed”.
He added: “The government needs to rethink this, they shouldn’t rule anything out, including the approach that was forced on the Scottish government.”

And the children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield also said “inequalities already existing in the education system will be deepened”.
She warned “more affluent schools with more resources are more likely to appeal” so the process should be “as easy as possible” to ensure “disadvantaged schools and students are not left out”.

In Wales, where students take AS-levels which count towards their final A-level, pupils have been promised they will not get a lower final result than their grade last summer.

Meanwhile the Scottish Conservatives deleted a tweet that accused First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of having “presided over one of the biggest scandals in the history of devolution, which shattered the life chances of thousands of Scottish pupils”.

The Student View:

Many students have been left disappointed with the grades handed down to them after exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A-level results were mostly based on teacher predictions, but were downgraded in nearly 40% of cases.
Here, students tell Sky News how the controversial grading method affected their results.
Holly Barber, 18, from Woodhouse Grove School, Bradford
Predicted grades: Maths – A, Physics – A, Geography – A
Actual grades: Maths – C, Physics – E, Geography – B
I feel a bit embarrassed that I’ve been wrongly graded for all my efforts at school.
I’ve spent two years trying to get the best results possible and this looks like I’ve not even tried at all at school. I feel it’s completely unfair.
I went into school this morning and they told us they’d spent hours in meetings, going through everything carefully to get us the right grades.
So then to be dropped from a predicted A to an E in physics for no reason at all… it’s just demoralising.
This will have a big impact on my future.
The government have completely ruined a lot of kids’ futures.
Every single person I’ve talked to has been downgraded. I feel like we’ve been screwed over. I’ve messaged so many people in my year and they’ve all been screwed over.

Shakeel Sooki, 18, Bexleyheath Academy, south London
Predicted grades: Biology – A, Chemistry – A, IT – Distinction
Actual grades: Biology – C, Chemistry – E, IT – Distinction
I feel a bit betrayed. My teachers did their upmost best to help me and gave me all the support possible to do all my work.
My mocks in Year 12 weren’t particularly good, but with all the extra help, they were improving.
Literally, my last mocks in Chemistry and Biology before we broke up were two As, so I knew that before lockdown happened if I did the exams and kept up with the work I was doing I could easily get an A and meet my offers.
I still had some hope they would see my last mocks and take that into account. Unfortunately they haven’t… I can do a lot better.
I don’t feel like it’s been handled particularly well – not a lot of information has come out, they just abruptly announced some changes because they saw how Scotland handled it and the backlash they received from the way they worked it out.
It seems that students this year have had to take a back seat.

Chloe Pearce, 18, from Northgate Sixth Form College, Ipswich
Predicted grades: PE – A, Drama – A, Health and social care: Distinction star
Actual grades: PE – B, Drama – A, Health and social care: Distinction star
I was very frustrated and rather angry at the whole system, at how the whole thing worked out.
I had been looking forward results day, I thought: ‘I’ve got these grades in the bag, there’s no reason I should be downgraded because there’s evidence enough from my mocks and my work throughout the year to show I deserve the grades.’
It’s just been a bit of shock to the system, really.
My entire PE class had been downgraded. It’s happened to everyone.
I know lots of people in my class had offers for Loughborough, and they needed an A in PE for that. They’ve all missed out on those offers because it seems the highest offer anyone has got in PE is a B.
It’s an absolute shambles. There are a lot of really disappointed students.
I’ve got an unconditional offer at Suffolk, but this lower grades impacts on whether I can get a bursary. I’m really lucky I’ve got my uni place so I’m guaranteed that but the extra bursary would have really helped. It’s going to be difficult.”

Two students at Leyton Sixth Form College in east London also gave feedback:
Wiktoria Sniadowska says she was predicted by her teachers to get A, A, A and hoped to study fine art – but the algorithm gave her B, B, C.

And Shadman Siraz was hoping to get into King’s College or Queen Mary University to study Economics. He was expecting A, A, A but ended up getting B, B, C.