Radley College investigated after claims pupils’ art work was ‘altered’

A FOURTH public school has been caught up in an exams scandal after a whistleblower alleged that pupils’ work has been altered by a teacher.

Radley College, in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, was found to have committed “technical breaches” in its GCSE art course after being investigated three times following complaints.

The teacher at the centre of the case is said to have added to students’ assessed work and had given them direction and advice during the exam.

The allegations concern the school’s head of art, whom The Daily Telegraph has chosen not to name.

Following the inquiries, the school admitted that it had increased the number of invigilators present during exams, adding that it had done so “voluntarily” and not at the behest of the exam board. The teacher remains head of the department and the school stated that it has “full confidence” in him.

The incident is the latest in a series of damaging disclosures concerning exam maladministration at leading independent schools, which have so far seen two senior academics at Eton and Winchester College suspended.

In the latest incident, The Daily Telegraph was passed a dossier in which the teacher was accused by a former colleague of breaching exam protocol during GCSE art exams in 2014 and 2016. The allegations were filed to the OCR exam board, which is understood to have later passed some of the allegations to the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, an exams awarding body, which initiated its own inquiry.

The whistleblower, who wishes to remain anonymous, alleged that the approach to the exam was “a relaxed affair” and that boys were not supervised during parts of their assessment.

This newspaper has also been made aware that AQA conducted an investigation into alleged malpractice in this year’s art A-level exam. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, John Moule, headmaster at Radley, confirmed that three investigations had taken place and that the art department had been the subject of a “series of allegations”.

He said: “Save for one minor technical issue identified in the 2014 GCSE exam session, in which OCR described the potential advantage given to candidates as negligible, no malpractice has been identified. No pupils’ grades have been affected.

“One minor breach was found to have taken place in the 2014 exam process – not in the exam itself – but the advantage to candidates was described by the board as negligible. The board’s advice was followed and departmental practice has been adjusted accordingly.”

The school said that the teacher did not wish to comment.

Meanwhile, Eton revealed last night that a second set of its students sitting an art history Pre-u exam had had their marks voided by the CIE exam board, days after the controversy involving the school’s former head of economics emerged.

It can now be revealed that Winchester pupils who were given advanced knowledge of the same exam by Laurence Wolff, the former departmental head, shared the information with Eton pupils. CIE last night confirmed that the two cases were linked.

A spokesman for Eton College said the exam board had concluded that the school’s pupils were not to blame.