Failing GCSE science pupils given ‘safety net’ after Ofqual moves grade boundaries

GCSE pupils who failed the new tougher science exam have been allowed to pass by the watchdog after it moved the boundaries, it has emerged.

Just days before students across the country pick up their results, Ofqual has taken the highly unusual step of intervening to save science students from failing.

The move follows warnings from exam boards that a number of students would be given a U, standing for “unclassified”, in their science GCSE which would “misrepresent” their ability.

The exams watchdog disclosed yesterday that it had introduced a new “safety net” to prevent too many students walking away with a U, the only grade that signifies a fail. The last-minute change to the boundaries will affect low ability students who took the higher tier paper in the new science double award exams, where students are examined in three sciences but receive two GCSES.

Teachers can choose whether to enter students for the higher tier paper – where the maximum grades are 9s, the top grade which is equivalent to a high A* – or the lower tier paper, where the maximum grades are 5s, which is somewhere between a B and a C.

Previously the lowest available grade in the higher tier paper other than a U was 4-3 – which is roughly C-D – but Ofqual said it had now changed this to 3-3, which is roughly D-D.

Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the University of Buckingham’s centre for education and employment, said the move was an “eleventh hour desperate measure”.

He said: “Schools are judged by these exams so there is a tendency to put too many people in the higher tier, hence the pass mark can be very low. This

5.1 million The number of GCSE exams taken this summer, of which 90 per cent were the new tougher numerically graded courses

year it looks as though that hasn’t even worked and so they’ve brought in this extra grade. One questions the wisdom of having a tiered entry in the first place. With the wisdom of hindsight they ought to have considered this and put something in place. Now they have to go at it at the last minute.”

Of the 5.1million GCSE exams taken this summer, around 90 per cent were the new, “tougher” courses, part of reforms instigated by Michael Gove, the former education secretary. Coursework was axed in many subjects and curricula broadened to inject rigour into the qualifications. Only the new English and maths exams came in last year, with another 20 subjects added this summer under a numerical grading system of 9 to 1 instead of A* to G.

In a blog published on Ofqual’s website yesterday, Cath Jadhav, the associate director of standards and comparability, wrote: “Exam boards reported to us that, while they were confident in standards set at 4-4, there were more students than expected getting an unclassified result on higher tier combined science. Receiving an unclassified result because they had been entered for higher tier would have misrepresented their ability.

“Therefore, we decided to allow exam boards to use grade 3-3 on the higher tier for this summer, matching grade 3-3 on the foundation tier. Senior examiners ...have reviewed the work of students at this grade and confirmed that it is of an appropriate standard.”

In total 372,000 students were entered for the science double award, but it is not known how many students the grade boundary change will affect.

Failure is often only relative. On GCSE results day, I still recall peeking into the envelope and bolting up the stairs to sob. I was discovered by a teacher who tried to comfort me: “Honestly, there’s always retakes! They might have marked it wrong. Which subject did you fail?” I could barely get the word out. “Drama,” I replied. “I only got an A. But I worked so, so hard for a… an A star!”

It might sound ludicrous – and I’m the first to admit that, had my GCSE been in melodrama, I would have got the top grade – but this is how many young people behave, aided and abetted by people who should know better.

We’ve turned out a generation of hysterics. It’s not about there being anything wrong with academically competitive schools. Mine gave me an excellent education and prepared me thoroughly for the exams. It’s what we don’t tell children about failure. And how, all too often, we try to protect them from the consequences of it.

I have vivid memories of panic attacks and tearful sleepover conversations – one friend hyperventilating because she was one mark off an A* in her chemistry mock, another sobbing because she longed to take textiles, but decided not to when her teacher told her she’d never get a higher grade than B. This was back in 2001. But there is little evidence that the situation has improved.

Witness this week’s hand-wringing about the new tougher GCSE marking scheme (where students are graded from one to nine, and where the top scores are only awarded for exceptional performance). It could leave students who were expecting a nine but only get an eight “disappointed”, said one expert. Another said that it would “ratchet up the pressure”, even having a deleterious effect on mental health. Yes it might well do. But protecting students from failure by making the top grades easier to attain would be exactly the wrong thing to do.

The importance of embracing failure – or bouncebackability, in the self-help jargon – should now be obvious. It teaches resilience and toughness. It encourages risk-taking over caution – and therefore sets you up for a future of entrepreneurship and innovation. It makes you think independently, because you realise no one else but you can help you climb back after a fall.

And it is surely best to get these lessons in earlier, rather than later. I have every sympathy for the hard working teens who are scared about being disappointed on Thursday. However, failing – or doing less well than you had hoped – is a crucial life lesson. And surely it’s better to fail when your biggest worry in life is chemistry GCSE rather than paying a mortgage and feeding three children.

Every one of us will fail and fall at some point. The earlier we start dealing with the mental muscles to cope with disappointment, the stronger we’ll be when we’re truly tested. Exams put us through our paces, but adult life sometimes feels like a long slog through broken hearts, broken bones and broken boilers. Striving for perfection is a positive thing, but it can make our children brittle and breakable.

And my drama GCSE? I didn’t take my teacher’s advice to resit the exam and went on to study the subject at A-level. Because failure taught me context. I wasn’t the best in the class, but that was no reason to stop trying.