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Schools now plan to hold their own mock exams after Gavin Williamson failed to explain how staff will be able to accurately grade GCSE and A-level students as teachers near-unanimously called for the Education Secretary to resign, it was revealed today. Headteachers have said they have ‘no choice’ but to test their pupils in some way after … Read more
Students and headteachers today demanded immediate clarity on whether GCSE and A-level exams will be axed this summer after Boris Johnson ‘bowed to the inevitable’ and shut all schools until February 22. The decision to close schools in England on the day many reopened after the festive break infuriated school leaders and unions who attacked the … Read more
Top health expert Sir Jeremy Farrar reveals he had to resit his A-levels and only recently stopped having nightmares about them Sage scientist Sir Jeremy Farrar said some students can be ‘late developers’ He said learners can have ‘bad days’ and they should be offered a second chance Sir Jeremy hopes to inspire people with how things … Read more
A-Levels ‘will be delayed next summer by three weeks after Downing Street insisted that they must not be cancelled completely’ Gavin Williamson is expected to soon announce a revised exams timetable He is adamant exams will go ahead after bruising summer with algorithm fiasco DfE said ‘a possible short delay to the exam timetable’ was proposed … Read more
Gavin Williamson was warned of major flaws in exam grading algorithm two weeks before A-levels fiasco but was told by Ofqaul that problems could be fixed with appeal By Henry Martin For Mailonline Published: 08:29 BST, 2 September 2020 | Updated: 09:00 BST, 2 September 2020 Gavin WIlliamson was warned of major flaws in the … Read more
Education union chiefs have today demanded an overhaul of next year’s GCSE and A-Level exams over fears coronavirus could cut school contact time and called for an emphasis shift away from end-of-year exams – because students find them ‘too stressful’. Bosses at the National Education Union (NEU), the UK’s largest teaching union, have written to … Read more
Gavin Williamson today gave his full backing to Ofqual just one day after blaming the exam regulator for the Government’s A-level results chaos. The Department for Education said in a statement issued this afternoon that ‘we have full confidence in Ofqual and its leadership’. Mr Williamson had said yesterday the regulator ‘didn’t deliver’ the grading system … Read more
Gavin Williamson was branded a ‘lame duck’ Education Secretary last night as senior Tories urged him to quit over the exams fiasco. MPs believe he will ultimately get the boot when the Prime Minister reshuffles his Cabinet this autumn. But former ministers insisted he should go now, saying his position was ‘completely untenable’. One added: … Read more
University admissions departments now face a ‘major headache’ amid the chaos of a Government U-turn on the way A-level results are awarded – and the scrapping of a temporary cap on how many students they can accept. English universities had only been allowed to recruit 5% more UK students than their targets this year in … Read more
Nearly 3,000 Oxford University graduates have called on the institution to admit students whose grades were downgraded amid the A-level results controversy. In an open letter, alumni called on the university to show ‘kindness and generosity’ to students whose marks had been ‘unexpectedly and unfairly downgraded by an algorithm’. Nearly two in five of teachers’ … Read more