Letter to Y13 students:
Following the controversial awarding of A level grades through a mixture of centre assessed grades and an algorithm, the Government has agreed to revert to centre assessed grades only. We firmly believe that this is the right decision. Your teachers have worked with you over the past two years and know what you are capable of. In my previous correspondence with you I laid out how your teachers awarded the centre assessed grades:
“Your teachers have worked as a team (faculty, SLT link, data manager) to produce the ‘most likely’ result using the evidence that they had. Headteachers nationally were asked to be judicious and to exercise ‘moral leadership’ in allocation of grades and not take the opportunity to over-inflate outcomes. To avoid school’s over inflating their results, national guidance made it clear that the school’s previous data would be taken into consideration. I want to reassure you that staff at Alsager School were rigorous in their approach; worked as a team to avoid any potential bias or discrimination and behaved professionally and with integrity.” This still stands.
Following the release of the calculated grade last week, 28% of our A level grades were downgraded by the exam board and/or OfQual. That is a total of 60/214 A level grades. The announcement today will mean that those affected by this, will have their centre assessed grade reinstated. I will let you know as soon as possible about how we can distribute the new grades. Please bear with us.
In a very few cases, some students were awarded a higher calculated grade than the centre assessed grade. The higher grade is the validated grade.
There may be some of you who will be disappointed with your centre assessed grade, but I want to assure you that staff awarded grades that they believed to be fair. We did not show any bias or discrimination. The grades were based on your consistent, overall performance. You will have the option of being able to take the exam in autumn, should you wish.
If you have had a university place affected by this and need some support, please contact the sixth form team to arrange an urgent appointment.
As always, I thank you for your patience with all of this. This has been a really challenging time for you all and you have all managed it in a mature way.
Mrs O’Neil, Head of Alsager School.
