The Education Secretary has this afternoon announced that teacher-assessed grades will be given to A-Level and GCSEs students in England this summer. I very much welcome that decision and I know that will come as a great relief to the many students who were bitterly disappointed by events last week, a number of whom have contacted me directly. You can read the statement in full here.
To all the students and parents who have gone through what must have been an incredibly distressing few days - I am sorry. As you will have seen from my posts on social media, I have been lobbying ministers to change the assessment decision and come up with something that more fairly reflects the hard work and potential of those students particularly trying to secure university places. Whilst this solution is not perfect it is certainly much fairer for the vast majority so I am pleased that it has now happened, but a lot of grief could have been avoided if this decision had been made last week.
The stress that this has caused thousands of families - exacerbated after months of uncertainty and the stress of lockdown -cannot be understated and I am glad that the Government has made this change. I know how well our excellent local schools and teachers have coped through the recent crisis and this additional pressure and potentially prolonged uncertainty was very unwelcome. So many students have worked so hard amid the chaos of recent months and I wish them all well with wherever the next stage of their career now takes them. Good luck.
