Skip to content
12 April 2026

Tag: exams

Ofqual cancels £80k media recovery plan

Ofqual has abandoned plans to spend £80,000 on media strategists to lead its “recovery plan” following the exams fiasco. The exams regulator had run a tender to recruit a “senior press office service to provide media advice and strategy”. The contract for the 15-week project, worth up to £80,000, was due to start this week. […]

Revealed: Ofqual warned of algorithm legal risk

Ofqual warned the government that exam boards could face legal challenges over the issuing of statistically moderated grades, newly published Covid-19 planning documents have revealed.  A contingency planning document sent to the government on March 16 sets out numerous risks associated with using the controversial approach which ignited last month’s exams grading fiasco .  The […]

Ofqual to face grilling by MPs over exams fiasco

Leaders from exams regulator Ofqual will appear in front of MPs next week to answer questions about this year’s A-levels and GCSEs fiasco – but outgoing boss Sally Collier will not be with them. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, will also “likely” face questions about the government’s handling of the crisis when he appears in […]

ASCL writes to Ofqual over ‘deflated grades’ fears

The Association of School and College Leaders has written to Ofqual and the government “as a matter of urgency”, amid concerns that pupils at schools that followed advice to mark down their own teacher grades have been “punished by that process”. Geoff Barton, ASCL’s general secretary, said that some of his members who deflated grades […]

Exams 2020: Heads question mock exam ‘curveball’

The government’s last-minute decision to give some pupils the chance to use mock exam grades instead of their calculated results has placed schools on the back foot and exacerbated anxiety among pupils, according to headteachers. The Department for Education announced last night – less than 48 hours before A-level results day – that some pupils […]

Exams 2021: All the GCSE changes, subject by subject

The exams regulator Ofqual has confirmed the changes that will be made to GCSE assessments next year. The decisions were published in the outcome to a consultation on the proposals for exams in 2021, which was drawn up in response to concerns about the continuing impact of coronavirus. The changes proposed are supposed to address […]

Autumn 2020 exam dates confirmed

Dates for the autumn exam series have been confirmed by the Joint Council for Qualifications. The organisation, which represents exam boards AQA, OCR, Edexcel and WJEC, said today that AS and A-level exams will take place between October 5 and October 23, and GCSEs will go ahead between November 2 and November 23. The autumn […]

Seven things we learned from Ofqual’s 2019-20 annual report

The exams regulator Ofqual has published its annual report for the 2019-20 financial year. Here’s what we learned.   1. Sixteen disqualified over Pearson maths A-level leak The leak of Pearson’s Edexcel A-level maths paper is described by Ofqual as the “most significant security breach in 2019”. However, the paper had been targeted before, and […]