Coronavirus: Education leaders react to government's exam grade replacement plans

Following the education secretary, Gavin Williamson’s announcement that schools were to close and this year’s A-level, GCSE and Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) were to be scrapped, the city’s educationalists and headteachers have been eagerly awaiting plans as to how pupils will now be graded.

The Department for Education (DFE) has revealed students will be awarded a calculated grade based on teacher predictions combined with previously assessed attainment, which gives an indication of the most likely outcome.

For GCSEs this is likely to be calculated from SATs and for A-levels, from GCSEs.

Following a meeting with Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation, a statement on the DfE website said: ‘The exam boards will be asking teachers, who know their students well, to submit their judgement about the grade they believe the student would have received.

‘The exam boards will combine this information with other relevant data, including prior attainment, and use it to produce a calculated grade.’

Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet member for education, Suzy Horton, said: ‘Under the circumstances this is a very logical and sensible decision. While an exam provides a snapshot of how a child has performed on that particular day I’ve always been an advocate of a system based on teacher assessment.’

Cllr Horton believes providing clarity on the process will allow students ‘to go on to the next stage’ whether that be college or university.

Predicted grades will be based on mock exam results, coursework submissions and other assessments.

Headteacher at Horndean Technology College, Julie Summerfield, feels ‘there’s no other way they could have done it’.

‘I don’t see what else they could have done – we don’t know when we will be going back,' she said.

‘In the past the situation may have been more manageable as there were less exams and more coursework but now most subjects have several examinations.

‘It will be disappointing for some students who can often really mature in that last few months and may be left wondering could I have done better.’

Portsmouth teacher and National Education Union president, Amanda Martin, is ‘confident that pupils will get the grades they deserve’.

Ms Martin said: ‘Teachers know where their children are at and we need to trust them. I’ve always believed teacher assessment over a period of time is a particularly comprehensive form of assessment.

‘Most countries in Europe don’t have children sitting exams at 16. Schools have a wealth of data and there will be a strong moderation process.’

While St Edmund’s Catholic School headteacher, Simon Graham, understands why exams were cancelled he does have reservations about the decision and the ‘fairness’ of a calculated grade.

Mr Graham said: ‘While the cancellation has provided certainty in some ways it has now created a lot of uncertainty for the future. I think it would have been fairer to have waited until the summer to reassess the situation.

‘This is not really a fair system. The only fair way is for pupils to sit some form of assessment.’

‘We have been discussing this, and there was not one member of staff who wasn’t willing to potentially work with students in August and even invigilate the exams.’

With grades scheduled to be awarded in July, pupils will have the option to appeal their grade or sit exams once schools reopen.

However, Cllr Horton feels there are a number of issues which need to be addressed.

‘If pupils do decide to sit the exam and do worse than their calculated grade then which one counts? Also pupils have not yet finished their courses,’ she said.

Despite the education secretary stating grades awarded will be ‘indistinguishable from those provided in other years’, Cllr Horton feels this will be impossible.

‘The simple fact is we have had a system in place based on exam performance. This is a completely different system.

‘I think we have to accept this is the reality of what’s a very difficult situation. This group will become known as the year who didn’t sit exams,’ she said.