Teachers ‘trusted’ with exam grades

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the Government is putting its trust in teachers in regards to determining summer exam grades.

During a Downing Street press briefing yesterday evening, he said there would be "no algorithms whatsoever" used in deciding the grades.

But he said he could not reveal what the appeal mechanism would look like before addressing MPs.

"As I said many times before, we are putting trust in teachers," he said.

"That's where the trust is going – there is going to be no algorithms whatsoever but there will be a very clear and robust appeals mechanism.

"But I'm afraid you're going to have to forgive me – it is right that this is announced in the House of

Commons and not to yourself, so sorry about that.

"But that will be happening tomorrow [Thursday], so just a few more hours to wait."

Mr Williamson said schools were being asked to keep open some capacity for testing pupils who could not get home support to carry out twice weekly testing.

"I certainly hope that parents will be encouraging and supporting children but we are also asking schools to keep open an asymptomatic testing centre so if children haven't been able to get the support or help that maybe they need to do the test at home, it is possible to do the test in school as well."

Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, said the tests were "very simple things to do" and "many of the public" were doing them.