GCSE results appear to have arrived as promised today following an unprecedented week of turmoil surrounding this year’s grades.
School leaders and exam boards say that results have arrived as expected this morning, meaning students will be receiving their final GCSE grades on results day.
It follows major uncertainty yesterday over when results would arrive and what grades students would actually be receiving.
Two days ago, Ofqual performed a dramatic U-turn when it announced that the centre-assessed grades produced by schools and teachers could be used for this GCSEs and A levels.
A Department for Education press release had said that on GCSE results day, students would receive their centre-assessed grades with the official results to follow next week.
However, yesterday morning, education secretary Gavin Williamson said during a TV interview that students would get their final results on Thursday.
This has been confirmed by schools and exam boards.
David Collins, head of Knole Academy in Sevenoaks, Kent, said: “We’ve got all the grades in for GCSEs…We’ve now received all the grades, so we’re busy stuffing envelopes.”
He told Tes that the “overwhelming majority of grades were ones that teachers predicted”. However, Mr Collins did query the changes that had been made, even though they would help his students.
“We are still seeing some students who have been upgraded by the algorithm, as it were. I do question that, because I still feel that as much as it is to the benefit of our students…you do think to yourself, ‘Well, the teachers have assessed them, that’s what they thought was the most appropriate for that student, so under what basis do get a higher grade?’
“But I’m not going to argue about those. We’ll take those.”
Jonny Uttley, chief executive of the TEAL academy trust in East Yorkshire, said: “Almost everything has come through properly, as far as we can tell.
“It feels like the exam boards have done their bit in difficult circumstances.”
David James, deputy headteacher of Bryanston, a private boarding school in Dorset, said: “Those independent schools who are doing Cambridge Assessment IGCSEs, there is a patchy delivery there, and know of a number of schools who are manually entering those Cambridge IGCSE results.
“We’ve had GCSE results, or the highest of the grade, which is a relief, but it’s not the full picture and there are a substantial number of [private schools] still waiting for Cambridge results.”
The exam board AQA said: “We’re pleased to say we’re ready to issue GCSE results on time. This means the results schools receive on Wednesday will be the formal results ready to give to students at 8am on Thursday, and will include any level 1/2 non-general qualifications.
“We’ll also issue the revised AS, A-level and level 3 applied general qualification results at the same time. Tech-level results will be available on Gateway, on Thursday afternoon.
“Further information on appeals will follow from Ofqual, and we’ll update our website as soon as we can.”
Paul Taylor, the principal of the independent Fulneck School in Leeds, said: “My team are still working on the final stats but it looks like, as promised, the pupils have received the higher of their centre-assessed grades or calculated grades.
“We’re surprised, actually, at how many have got the higher calculated grade.”
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