Independent schools should have to pay more to appeal against exam marks than state schools, according to a leading private school headmaster.
Shaun Fenton, the incoming chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistress’ Conference, has told Sunday Telegraph that the system of getting exams re-marked should be more accessible to state schools.
The head of the fee-paying Reigate Grammar School, in Surrey, said: “It is a social justice issue that some schools representing particular demographics put in for low or no re-marks.”
Mr Fenton is the incoming chairman of the HMC, which represents the leaders of more than 280 private schools across the UK.
“Our schools will always find the funds to pay for a re-mark - but we want it to be more accessible,” he added.
According to the Sunday Telegraph report, Mr Fenton suggested to Ofqual, the exam regulator, that prices could be restructured so that private schools paid more for appeals while state schools could have a lower fee or none at all.
He said that another solution was to make all appeals free of charge.
“We have come up with a variety of models but they haven’t got any traction yet,” he said. “But I think they will.”
Mr Fenton, who has been a headteacher since 2002, is the son of rock star Alvin Stardust. He has previously been head of two maintained secondaries.
Earlier this year Ofqual published figures which showed the number of exam appeals had increased in 2017.
It also revealed that the proportion of appeals that were upheld had also risen.
Across GCSE and A-level, the total number of appeals upheld rose from 62 out of 302 in 2016 (20.5 per cent) to 275 out of 597 (46 per cent).
Ofqual said this could be due to the fact that last summer it announced a new right to appeal results after an exam board’s initial review if schools continued to have concerns about errors in marking or moderation.
