All schools and colleges will receive their GCSE results on time this year following the government’s grading U-turn, exam boards have pledged today. 

A statement from the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said exam boards were working hard to provide results based either on centre assessment grades (CAGs) or the moderated grade, depending on which is higher.

It comes as a major heads union had been set to warn schools to expect delays with this year’s results, as exam boards work against the clock to process final GCSE grades following the government’s U-turn.

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The statement from JCQ today said: “Following yesterday’s announcement to allow awarding in England, Northern Ireland and Wales of centre-assessed grades, the exam boards are working hard to provide the final centre assessment grade (or calculated grade if higher) GCSE results to schools and colleges.

“JCQ can now confirm that all schools and colleges will receive their results according to the published time of 00:01 on Wednesday 19 August, allowing students to receive their final grades as usual on Thursday.”

Boards need to recalculate official grades after assessing which is higher - their teacher-assessed grade or calculated moderated one. Tes understands that this afternoon some boards have completed the process, but not all.

Last night, the Department for Education announced that students would not get their “official results” until next week.

But this morning, education secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC morning news that students “will be told whichever is their highest, whether it is their centre-assessed grades or whether that is the moderated standardised grade that has been provided by Ofqual, and certification will follow a week later.”

The Association of School and College Leaders had been set to warn its members that there may be some delays in the arrival of GCSE results this year. 

In guidance that was due to be sent out to members this afternoon, the union said: “The preferred scenario appears to be for the exam boards to release to centres tomorrow a list of each GCSE student’s final grades.

“These will be either their CAG or their calculated result in each subject - whichever is the higher. Schools and colleges would then share these with students in the usual way. Students would therefore only receive one grade for each subject, rather than being told both their CAG and their calculated grade.

“Exam boards are unlikely to be able to release this information as early as usual tomorrow. They intend to confirm asap when centres can expect to receive it.

“If some exam boards aren’t able to process this information in time to release it tomorrow at all, schools and colleges may need to give students their CAGs themselves, with an indication that some of their grades may go up once they receive their calculated grades, but none will go down.”

However, this guidance was drawn up before the JCQ pledge that all results would arrive on time.