Students can use coursework to appeal against A Level grades, exams regulator confirms
Students in England will be able to submit coursework as part of the appeals process against their A-level grades, the exams regulator has confirmed.
After Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced students would be able to use their mock results as evidence for an appeal, Ofqual said non-exam assessments could also be considered.
The move means recordings of performances by drama students, art work by arts students and practical projects by technology students could form part of any appeal.
Ofqual said exam boards will be ready to process appeals from Monday.
The announcement came as ministers continued to face a furious backlash after thousands of students saw their recommended grades by their teachers downgraded under Ofqual’s standardisation process.
Setting out its criteria for students to use their mock results as the basis for an appeal, Ofqual said: "This route of appeal is open to any student whose mock grade is higher than their calculated grade.
"We want to make sure this opportunity is available to a wide range of students, including those who had not taken a written mock exam before schools and colleges closed.
“We will therefore allow a non-exam assessment mark to be used too. Successful appeals on this ground will allow the student to receive the mock grade."
The exams regulator said the arrangements in place this year are "the fairest possible in the absence of exams".
"However any process for calculating grades will inevitably produce some results which need to be queried," it said.
"Because of the grade protection in place for students this summer, no grades will go down as a result of an appeal."
Ofqual said the same appeals process would be used for GCSE, AS results and students taking Extended Project Qualifications and Advanced Extension Award in maths.
However Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the whole appeals process had become so "surreal and bureaucratic" it should be abandoned altogether.
He urged the Government drop the moderated grades and to return to the original teacher assessments instead.
"This is clearly a face-saving exercise by a Government which has said that it won’t do a U-turn on its pledge that moderated grades will stand, come what may,” he said.
“Instead, it is attempting to remedy the grading fiasco through an appeals process so surreal and bureaucratic that it would be better off at this point doing that U-turn and allowing original teacher-assessed grades, where they are higher, to replace moderated grades."
It comes after Mr Williamson said schools in England will be able to appeal A-level and GCSE grades free of charge.
Mr Williamson said the Government would cover the fee, which can be up to £150, to make sure headteachers were not put off from submitting applications.
He said it would be a "shocking injustice" if cost stopped the process for pupils with a "strong and legitimate" case.
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