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25 April 2026

Tag: exams 2020

Broken promises: DfE snubs exams transparency request

Gavin Williamson has snubbed demands from the education select committee to provide details of key meetings his department held with Ofqual in the run-up to the exams debacle, despite promising transparency. The education secretary had been ordered by committee chair Robert Halfon to provide the information by Monday, after missing an earlier deadline. It is […]

Exams 2020: ‘No evidence’ poorer pupils disadvantaged, concludes Ofqual

There is “no evidence” that the system for awarding GCSEs and A-levels this year systematically disadvantaged poorer pupils or those with protected characteristics, an analysis by Ofqual has found. But 6,300 GCSE entries, most of them from private schools, may have received “disproportionately overestimated grades”, the exams regulator said. Ofqual has published a technical report […]

Revealed: What Ofqual’s explosive board minutes tell us about the exams fiasco

The ill-fated exams “triple lock” policy that sparked a chain of events culminating in pupils instead being awarded their centre-assessed grades was announced before Ofqual had been able to even sign it off. The exams regulator has today published its long-awaited board minutes that give a behind-the-scenes account of this year’s exams fiasco. They also […]

RSCs will ignore trusts’ 2020 results data and ‘pseudo Progress 8’ scores

Regional schools commissioners will ignore academy trusts’ own data on their 2020 results and “pseudo Progress 8” scores provided by third parties when making decisions this year. RSCs oversee the academies sector, and are responsible for deciding if schools need to move between trusts. They are also involved in decisions on new free schools and […]

Exams 2020: Education unions call for ‘urgent’ inquiry into grades fiasco

Unions representing hundreds of thousands of school staff have demanded an independent inquiry into the exam grades fiasco. Teaching unions the National Education Union and NASUWT, along with leadership unions NAHT and ASCL, have written to education secretary Gavin Williamson calling for an “urgent and independent” inquiry into the process of awarding A-levels, GCSEs and […]

Exams 2020: Ofqual to provide guidance on “valid mock grades”

Ofqual has announced it will publish guidance on how schools can use “valid mock grades” to appeal A-levels and GCSE results next week. The Department for Education confirmed late last night that some pupils will be offered the option to use grades given in mock exams instead of their standardised A-level and GCSE grades. The […]

Exams 2020: 40% of A-level grades ‘adjusted’, minister reveals

Forty per cent of A-level grades provided by schools have been “adjusted” during the standardisation process, Nick Gibb has revealed. The schools minister told the Today programme this morning that “the majority of students tomorrow will get the grade submitted by the teacher, and of those 40 per cent of grades that are adjusted, it’ll […]