North East students to receive GCSE results after major grading U-turn

This year’s summer exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and last week’s A-level results day prompted ministers to make a U-turn this week after some students had their marks downgraded.

Btec grades were not included in the original U-turn, but on Wednesday, August 19 – with just hours to go until results day – exam board Pearson said it would regrade Btecs to “address concerns about unfairness”.

So Btec pupils will have to wait a bit longer for those results to be recalcuated.

Schools minister Nick Gibb apologised for the “pain and the anxiety” students felt before this week’s grading U-turn.

It is still unclear what the appeals process will be for GCSE and A-level students who are unhappy with their results.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), is expecting staff to have “challenging” conversations with GCSE students unhappy with results.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Wednesday, he said: “That will be repeated tomorrow I guess. I think people are expecting difficult conversations.

“It will be around a misunderstanding of ‘This is an individual teacher. She didn’t like me. She has therefore marked me down.’”

Overall, this year more students are expected to receive higher GCSE grades than in previous years, Mr Barton continued.

He added: “This is because schools may, understandably, have given some students the benefit of the doubt when they are on the borderline between two grades and they had the capability to achieve the higher grade.”

Traditional A*-G grades have been scrapped and replaced with a 9-1 system amid reforms, with 9 the highest result.

A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade, and a 7 broadly equivalent to an A.

Students receiving GCSE results this summer will get numerical grades for all their subjects as all courses have now moved over to the new grading system.

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