Prestigious girls’ school caught up in exam scandal
THE headmistress of one of Britain’s most prestigious girls’ schools is accused of covering up an investigation into exam malpractice, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Queen’s Gate school, the alma mater of the Duchess of Cornwall and Nigella Lawson is the latest private school to be dragged into the exam cheating scandal. The South Kensington school, which charges fees of £18,900 a year, was subject to an investigation by the AQA exam board last summer, which found that malpractice had been committed in two French oral exams.
Writing to the school to inform it of its findings, AQA confirmed that students had been provided “homework” which disclosed some of the contents of their forthcoming tests.
But rather than immediately informing parents of the exam board’s investigation – and its outcome – headmistress Ros Kamaryc kept the truth of what was happening hidden from parents for more than four months. It comes after this newspaper revealed that Eton and Winchester College had been forced to suspend or dismiss two senior academics this summer, after they leaked exam details to their students.
The disclosures, which also saw two other leading schools caught up in the scandal, prompted the Government to demand an investigation by the exam regulator Ofqual.
This newspaper has seen emails exchanged between a student and two of her French teachers, showing that they disclosed questions that would later be asked in the exam. The student udent was asked to submit her answers s as homework, which were later corrected rected by a teacher, who instructed that t she learn the corrected answers off byy heart.
The exam board subsequently sequently voided the oral exam marks s of all 18 students, with an estimated ed mark following its finding that there ere had been improper assistance giveniven to pupils by a teacher. The teacher eacher left the school voluntarily and nd before the AQA’s ruling.
The scandal was exposed four months later, when one family mily became concerned that the school was failing to deal with
Students were given ‘homework’ which disclosed some of the content of their test
their request for a re-mark of their daughter’s French oral exam and instructed lawyers to investigate the matter. The family have spent more than £18,000 on legal costs so far.
After lengthy correspondence with the school, Mrs Kamaryc admitted that AQA had replaced their daughter’s mark with an estimated one following an investigation.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, the mother said that her daughter had been “utterly betrayed” by Mrs Karmayc, who she accused of seeking “only to protect herself and the school”. “We feel completely betrayed,” she continued. “There was no loyalty shown to my daughter, let alone the hypocrisy of the head teacher, who tells pupils day in day out to be honest and truthful.”
The family were last week interviewed by Ofqual, which is now thought to be considering the incident alongside its wider investigation into exam malpractice. The school accepted that they had been notified in July 2016 that results for two Alevel French speaking modules would be replaced with estimated marks “following breach of security and improper assistance” by a teacher. The school states that it immediately asked the board for clarification and “the possibility of re-marks for some candidates”.
It went on to say “Once the board’s final response was received the school wrote to parents.” The school denies that it mislead parents and pupils and told The Sunday Telegraph: “At all times, the school acted in good faith and in what we believed to be the best interests of pupils. The parents of the pupils who sat these examinations were notified at the earliest opportunity, once the board had made its decision and once the school had as much information about the decision as the board was willing to give to us.” A school spokesman added: “We are now using external examiners for these examinations, in order to ensure that there can be no repetition. The board is very satisfied with the steps that the school has taken.”
An AQA spokesman said: “Malpractice involving teachers is rare and the consequences are serious. Investigations have to be handled confidentially so we can’t give details of cases, but we investigate all allegations thoroughly. When we find malpractice, we take action to make sure no one has an unfair advantage or disadvantage.”
The spokesman added that the exam boards standard practice is to advise schools to have a plan in place for results day to explain any estimated grades as a result of malpractice investigations.