We are delighted to be able to share results with our students today. These results are a testament to our students’ hard work and perseverance over many years.
Robin Newman, Principal commented “I am so impressed with our students who have had to endure so much in recent months. It has been excellent to see so many of our Year 11 students collecting their results today. Staff have been able to help our students with securing their next steps, ensuring the right path for each of them. We wish each of our Year 11 students great success as they move into our sixth form, to college, an apprenticeship or work”.
Results were determined very differently this year after exams were unable to go ahead due to COVID-19. Schools and colleges were asked to use their professional experience to make a fair and objective judgement of the grades they believed a student would have achieved had they sat their exams this year, and to submit these centre-assessed grades to the relevant exam board.
Groups of teachers and leaders in each subject worked together to discuss and agree the centre-assessed grade for each student. They considered a wide range of available evidence, including class work, mock exams and other records of student performance.
The intention was that the exam boards would then moderate the centre-assessed grades, to check that schools and colleges had approached this task consistently, before providing students with their final calculated grades. Unfortunately, the method they used to do this proved problematic, and was likely to lead to many grades being unfairly downgraded. The government therefore made the decision that students would be awarded whichever was higher for each subject – their centre-assessed grade or their calculated grade. This is what the grades students received today are based on.
Our heartfelt congratulations to the Class of 2020 for everything you’ve achieved in this most difficult of years.
