Samantha Booth | Schools Week

Numbered A-levels, inflation and plan B: 6 exams findings from today’s education committee

A bigger rise in top grades for private schools this year reflects poorer pupils missing out on more education, rather than a consequence of the switch to teacher grades, schools minister Nick Gibb has said. Appearing before the education select committee this morning, government officials also revealed grading plans for next year’s exams will be […]

Take ‘urgent action’ on school ventilation, unions tell government

The government must take “urgent action” to invest in ventilation measures in schools ahead of the autumn term, unions have said. Last week, it was revealed that the Department for Health and Social Care is funding a £1.75 million pilot project on the use of air purifiers in schools. However, the research only involves 30 […]

DfE sprinklers plan leaves most schools ‘exposed to fires’, warn campaigners

The government’s proposal to only advise the use of sprinklers in some new schools will leave the majority “exposed to fires”, education unions and fire safety experts have warned. In a letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson, 23 organisations said it was “incomprehensible” that the Department for Education had snubbed calls to have sprinklers in […]

GCSE results 2021: Poor pupils fall further behind as inequalities exposed

Longstanding gaps between poorer pupils and their wealthier peers likely to achieve the top grades in GCSEs has widened, Ofqual has found. The gap between pupils in private schools and their academy counterparts has grown by more than 6 percentage points, while Gypsy and Roma student have also fallen behind. But the exams regulator warned […]

Ofqual reminds pupils they don’t need legal advice to appeal exam grades

Exams regulator Ofqual has reminded pupils and parents they don’t need legal advice to appeal against exam grades, following criticism of law firms offering their services. Students unhappy with their results this week will first have the opportunity to ask their schools to check for administration errors, before asking them to escalate it to exam […]

A-level results 2021: Less than 1% of teacher grades changed

Less than 1 per cent of A-level teacher grades were changed after quality assurance checks by exam boards. Student work from 1,101 centres in England – around one in five schools and colleges – had their evidence scrutinised during external quality assurance this summer by exam boards. For 85 per cent of schools and colleges […]

A-level results 2021: Attainment gap widens for black and poorer pupils

Longstanding attainment gaps for both black and poorer students have widened, but Ofqual is unable to untangle whether this is down to Covid lost learning or the use of teacher grades this year. Ofqual has today published student-level equalities analysis of A-level results, which includes data on how likely different groups of pupils are to receive […]

A-level results 2021: The 4 things to watch out for this week

It’s a week like no other – two sets of exam results in just three days after months of hard work by school staff to reach this point. Tens of thousands of students are due to find out their teacher-assessed A-level grades tomorrow, after exams were cancelled for a second year. But is it going […]

Teachers have ‘earned country’s trust and admiration’, says Williamson

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has said teachers’ “hard work” in producing grades for their students this year has “earned the trust and admiration of the whole country”. In a letter thanking teachers ahead of A-level results day tomorrow, Williamson said teachers have given students “their passports to the future”. It follows Dr Mary Bousted, National […]