Hampshire students ‘confused’ as to why teachers' grades ‘weren’t trusted in the first place’
GCSE students have hit out at the government for the ‘stress and anxiety’ caused by this week’s U-turn on the awarding of calculated grades and their handling of the exams results process.
While pupils said they were ‘pleased’ education secretary, Gavin Williamson, had reversed his decision to use a calculated algorithm based on a school’s past academic performance and had decided to go with teacher predictions they were ‘confused’ and ‘annoyed’ as to why teachers’ professional judgement had not been trusted initially.
St Edmund’s pupil, Kazim Kanani, 16, said: ‘We could have avoided all this stress and anxiety if teachers predicted grades had just been trusted in the first place.’
Classmate, Lydia Adie, 16, added: ‘They should have just accepted teachers awarded grades from the start. They are the ones who know us best - not the government.’
It was a sentiment shared by students at University Technical College (UTC) Portsmouth.
UTC pupil, Caitlin Marshall, 16, said: ‘In the end I think using teacher predictions was the fairest thing to do. They are the ones who know us best.'
The changes announced in the build up to results days – the first about the safety-net of mock exams and then the U-turn to accept teacher estimates unless the calculated grade was higher – had resulted in many pupils arriving to school ‘still unsure’ about what grade they were going to get’.
Park Community School student, Molly-Mae Ives, 16, said: 'I felt I had a good understanding about the U-turns and changes because I have been following it quite closely - but it's been very confusing.
'The worst aspect has been the unknown. We just didn't know what results we were going to get.'
Students were particularly critical of the use of an algorithm based on previous performance of past students which they felt was ‘unfair’ and didn’t judge the individual.
St Edmund’s pupil, Lily Robson, 16, commented: ‘I was really concerned about the system once I had seen what had happened with the A-level results. Surely our teachers know us best – not some calculated algorithm.’
Class mate, Niamh O’Shea, 16, added: ‘I think the way it has been handled is very messy although it’s difficult to criticise just the education secretary as it has also involved the exam boards.’
A number of pupils also felt the use of teacher assessment rather than the pressure and stress of a final exam should be considered as a fairer way to assess student attainment in the future.
Priory School student, Martha Broadbent-Smith, 16, said: ‘I was kind of glad that I got to miss out on my exams. I think the school system of giving a final result based on one exam is unfair and disadvantages a lot of students.‘I think Centre Assessed Grades give an opportunity to see how the student actually did rather than one cumulative exam that doesn’t reflect their ability.‘I'm really happy and I’m really glad it turned out that way.’