A Level appeals chaos as anger mounts over 280,000 downgraded results

The Government and exam regulator Ofqual are now trying to cobble together a system in days after many students were given false hope under a “triple lock” that they would simply be able to pick the best mark from their awarded grade, mock or an exam taken in the autumn.

The sense of shambles was reinforced by Ofqual pulling out of a press conference early this morning before announcing an hour later that it would be rejoining it.

Despite anger among students, parents and teachers, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted he would not follow the Scottish administration in doing a U-turn and allowing far more students to get results based on assessments from their school.

“You’ve got to have a system that has checks and balances, that looks at the whole performance and making sure you maintain standards within the exam system, to ensure those results carry credibility,” he told Sky News.

In the first sign of a possible Tory revolt, Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee, called on the Government to extend the appeals system.

He told the Evening Standard: “I want an appeal system where everybody who feels their grade is unfair and it’s signed off by the headteacher should be able to appeal.”

Mr Halfon believes the system used is the “least worst option” but the appeals system has to be “second to none” with a “fast turnaround”.

Mr Williamson advised schools to get appeals in “early” so they could be decided by September 7 and ensure students could still go to university.

In a day of joy for many of the 300,000 students getting results and dashed hopes for others, exam boards announced:

James Handscombe, principal of Harris Westminster sixth form, said he will appeal against the grades given in half of subjects, including maths and further maths.

“Whatever system they have used has not fairly represented the students or school,” he said. He said that using data from 2017, when the school had its first full cohort, was “ancient history” given that it opened in 2014.

Oliver Blond, headmaster of Roedean School in East Sussex said some of his students have had results changed by up to three grades from the initial teacher assessment, and predicted a “very high” number of appeals as a result of the “confusion, inconsistency and lack of fairness.” He said: “There are very clear examples of individual students being graded incorrectly.”

Vicky Bingham head of South Hampstead High School, north London, said the school is likely to appeal some results where the awarded grades were lower than mock results.

She said: “One particularly frustrating aspect of the results is the ‘outlier effect’ — students being awarded lower than predicted grades...because a tiny number of students (e.g. 1 or 2) achieved these grades in the past so the algorithm says that someone needs to get them.”

Kathy Crewe-Read, head of Wolverhampton Grammar School, said its current A-level cohort was one of the best ever but just over half of the students had their teacher-assessed grades downgraded.

“A Levels are not about the nation. They are about individual students’ performance,” she said.

Michelle Meadows, an Ofqual director, said the regulator was “urgently” working with exam boards for an appeal system using mock results to be ready early next week.

She added: “If a centre is seeing outcomes that they find surprising then talk to their exam board, try and find what’s gone on and we’ll get to the bottom of it and that’s part of the process this year.”

Ministers had warned of top grade inflation of about 12 per cent if results had not been “standardised”.

A “late clearing process” is set to be available for pupils who sit A-level exams in the autumn, Mr Williamson added, and said universities were “looking at being as flexible as possible”.