EXAM RESULTS

Claire Young, from the Lib Dems has spoken of her response to what we are seeing as tearful young people and their parents locally are seeking help.

“It’s heart breaking to see young people not getting the results they deserve, through no fault of their own. Students need to be judged on their own record, not past results from their school. It cannot be fair that  those at state schools and further education colleges have been harder hit by the downgrading than those at independent schools.”

“At an anxious time disappointed students need urgent answers about what happens next. While I’m glad the Government has heeded our calls for appeals to be free, that alone is not enough. Ministers must make sure students can appeal directly and show evidence of what they can do, to give them the best chance of getting fair grades. They also need clear guidance on how re-sits will work.

“Given how badly Gavin Williamson has handled this process so far, it’s time for him to hand over to someone else to pick up the pieces.”

It is not enough to say appeals are free, or to say mocks can count, or to say appeals will be fast tracked, or resits will be possible sometime in the autumn. Young people will lose jobs and university places as a result. TIME matters.

OUR young people are being judged not by their ability, but by a computer algorithm which the government refuses to publish. So what assumptions have they built in? We know it was not applied to small classes (which tend to be in the independent schools, so they got the grades their teachers thought they deserved). This is not the normal moderation process, this is a secretive process removed from actual performance.