Students are given more time to appeal on exams

A-LEVEL AND GCSE students will receive grades determined by their teachers earlier in August to give them more time to appeal.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced yesterday that all pupils in England will be allowed to appeal against their grades at no additional cost and will be offered the chance to sit exams in the autumn if they are still unhappy with their results.

Exam boards will provide teachers with optional assessment questions for students to answer to help schools decide which grades to award after this summer’s exams were cancelled due to the pandemic.

But these assessments are not expected to be carried out in exam conditions and teachers will have the flexibility to choose how long students have to complete the task and where it will be carried out.

The final decision comes after the Association of School and College Leaders said students should not be expected to sit compulsory “mini-exams” to help teachers with their grading judgements amid Covid-19 disruption.

But concerns have been raised that the Government’s approach to grading A-level and GCSE students could result in “extremely high grade inflation”.

The Department for Education and England’s exams regulator Ofqual has confirmed that teachers will be able to draw on a range of evidence when determining grades, including mock exams, coursework or other work completed as part of a pupil’s course, such as essays or in-class tests.

Pupils will be assessed only on what they have been taught after months of school closures.

Schools and colleges will submit their grades to exam boards by June 18 to maximise teaching time and students will receive grades in early August once quality-assurance checks have been completed by the exam boards.

Normally students receive their results in mid to late August but A-level students will receive their results on August 10 and GCSE pupils will receive theirs two days later on August 12.

It is hoped bringing results day forward will ensure pupils have enough time to log appeals so A-level students do not miss out on their preferred university places for the autumn.

The grading of students became a fiasco last summer when exams were cancelled amid school closures.

But this year the regulator will not use an algorithm to standardise teachers’ estimated grades.

The DfE said schools and colleges would conduct multiple checks to ensure as much fairness as possible.