Concern as top school swaps predictions with exams

Parents complain that unseen papers, which other children will not sit, might lead to lower grades

PARENTS at an elite school fear their children will get lower GCSE grades because the head teacher is to have an examination blitz to justify predictions.

Pupils at Dame Alice Owen’s School in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, are being told that their predicted grade will be based on their performance in unseen papers in all academic subjects to be completed in examination conditions.

Raphael Walters, 44, said: “My daughter has over 30 hours of exams – these are GCSES in all but name.

“With the assessments the exam boards are issuing, students know what will be on them. But these exams are being set by the school so no one knows what will be on them. These children might come out with lower grades.”

GCSES and A-levels have been cancelled for a second successive year due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. The exam watchdog, Ofqual, has said that teachers’ predictions will be used instead and that these will need to be based on evidence which could be an assessment, homework or coursework.

The Department for Education has previously sad that end-of-year exams – which teachers can use to inform their predicted grades – will be voluntary.

Last month, it emerged that exam boards will publish test papers before pupils take them, after officials decided it was inevitable they would be leaked online if they tried to keep them secret.

Exam boards are preparing a series of test papers for every subject but teachers will be allowed to choose whether to use them to inform their predicted grades. If teachers use the papers, students will not need to take them under exam conditions and teachers will also have discretion over whether they are taken at home or at school.

Dame Alice Owen’s students taking practical or creative subjects, such as physical education, music and drama, will have predicted grades based on a mixture of exams and non-exam assessment. But those taking academic subjects – such as sciences, English, history, modern languages – will have grades based solely on performance in exams.

Hannah Nemko, the head teacher, wrote to parents saying that the decision was made “to be fair to all students”. However, parents accused the school of setting GCSES “by the back door” and complained to Ms Nemko, governors and the exam watchdog.

The school, founded in 1613, is one of the top academic state schools and one of the oldest in the country.

Jules White, founder of the Worth Less campaign, a group of around 2,000 head teachers, said that it was right to cancel GCSES and A-levels but warned that this “half-in half-out” approach is “in danger of creating yet more unwelcome exam turbulence this summer”.

He said: “Head teachers are having to respond to guidance that leaves too much to individual interpretation and an appeals system that could see schools mired in litigation. Some schools are choosing a wide array of assessments to support grading decisions when the whole point of the abandonment was to avoid an over reliance on exams.

“A blend of evidence – including classwork and assessments – should be used and the Department for Education must make it clear that school judgments will be reliable and trustworthy.”

Dame Alice Owen’s School declined to comment.