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Results 2020: Students won’t find out their algorithm grades

AQA employees will strike during A-level results day, UNISON has announced

Ofqual will not tell pupils the calculated grade they were set to get before the government’s U-turn.

The regulator told Schools Week this is because the calculated grades are now “no longer relevant”.

“To avoid confusion and to remove any further distress for students, we are not publishing the national calculated grades,” a spokesperson added.

GCSE pupils will receive just the one grade per subject tomorrow which will most likely be their centre assessment grade, or calculated grade in the small number of instances where that may be higher.

This is being called their ‘final grade’. Ofqual said it doesn’t expect pupils to be told which type of grade it is.

A-level students will also receive their revised results tomorrow.

However, later in the autumn term, the regulator will publish details of the algorithm grades as part of its annual analysis of grading.

This presumably means the “summer report” which is usually published in December. But this normally only contains a short analysis of exams at a national level.

There also may be a route for pupils to submit a subject access request (SAR) to obtain the calculated grade from Ofqual, should they wish.

Before the grading U-turn, schools were facing SARs from pupils who wanted to find out what the centre assessed grade and ranking place was.

The level of requests is likely to be hugely reduced now, after the government decided to award pupils their CAG instead of calculated grade.

However Esther Maxwell, legal director at law firm Shakespeare Martineau, said: “It is the case that pupils can made a data subject access request to Ofqual to obtain copies of any personal data that Ofqual holds about them, and this could include the details of their calculated grades.”

Ofqual has been contacted for comment.

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