GCSE Results

We would like to congratulate all our Year 11 students for their GCSE Results. Many of our students have achieved excellent results and should feel very proud. However, we also recognise that some of our students will be disappointed with some of their grades and there is little we can say or do to change that. Further to the information shared earlier in the year, we would like to explain how the Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs) were determined. When lock down for the country was announced and schools were closed for most students, the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, announced that exams would not take place for Years 11 and 13 and schools would be asked to provide a Centre Assessed Grade (CAG). Schools were asked to provide the most accurate grade they could for what they thought students would achieve had they sat the exams. Schools were asked to draw upon a range of different evidence such as previous assessments and exams, classwork and homework as well as referencing local and national standards for achievement. Schools were urged to be realistic and were informed that unduly high grades would be moderated down.

When arriving at the CAGs, that we felt the exam boards would consider realistic and accurate, we implemented a rigorous and extensive moderation process which compared these grades with the previous GCSE achievement of students at Hamstead Hall as well as in England. These CAGs were submitted to the exam boards who intended to apply a statistical algorithm to standardise the grades with all students in England. This week the government announced a U-Turn and decided that no grades would be moderated down. We welcomed this news following the turbulence of the recent A-Level Results.

Although many students will be pleased with their grades, we understand that nothing can placate the frustration students feel who received grades below what they had hoped for, having not had the opportunity to complete exams and demonstrate their achievement.

We appreciate this frustration and sympathise fully but we did what we could within the remit provided by the government and the Exam Boards. We can assure you that it has been a very challenging process in an unprecedented period.

Ofqual have given the following guidance for students following the releases of their grades:

Even if your results aren’t what you were hoping for, you might still be able to move on to the next stage of your education or employment as you had planned. If you have concerns about how your grades were arrived at you should talk to your school or college about your options. It is important to remember that:

1. You can ask your school or college to check whether it made an administrative error when submitting information to the exam board. Administrative errors might include, for example, mixing up 2 students with similar names, or accidentally copying across the wrong data, but do not relate to the professional judgements of centres in assigning CAGs. If your school or college finds it made a mistake in the information it provided it can ask the exam board to correct it.
2. Your school or college can appeal to the exam board on your behalf if it believes the exam board made a mistake when it communicated your grades.
3. You cannot challenge your school or college under the appeals process on the centre assessment grades it submitted or your rank order positions. Any appeal would have to be undertaken by someone better placed than your teachers to judge your
   likely grade if exams had taken place. In the unique circumstances of this summer, we do not believe there is such a person.
4. You cannot appeal because your mock result was higher than the grade you were awarded. Your mock grade will have been taken into account in determining your centre assessment grade. You will either receive your centre assessment grade or
   your calculated grade (whichever is higher).

 Ofqual: August 2020

We fully understand that this information from Ofqual leaves very little options for students who have received grades lower than those they had hoped for or expected but we hope that all of our students are able to move onto the next stage of their education. During the last few months, our sixth form team have been in contact with most students in Year 11 to discuss options for them. We look forward to welcoming most of them back to our sixth form in September.

We wish all our students the best for the next stage of their education or training.

Mr Farar and Mr Mortimer