Last Thursday, anxious A level students at Haverhill’s Samuel Ward Academy were delighted to see that 81% of them had achieved an A* to C grade, which is an increase on last year’s results.
And this morning, our town's GCSE pupils opened the envelopes that encapsulated months – if not years – of hard work. Happily, many of them were left elated by their GCSE results, with more than 30% achieving an A* or A grade, in comparison with the national average of 22%.
At Castle Manor Business & Enterprise College in Haverhill, 91% of students received at least five A* to C grades.
At Samuel Ward Academy, 70% of GSCE students attained at least a minimum of five A* to C grades, including the subjects of English and Maths.
Overall, 47% of pupils got three or more A and A* grades, with 99% of students receiving A to G passes.
However, the day has seen controversy regarding the marking of English papers; it has been reported that there has been a fall of 0.4% in the proportion of A*, A, B and C grades nationally – the first time this has happened since GCSE exams were introduced in 1988.
A significant amount of schools have reported unexpected English results, which has resulted in some schools making the decision to wait until they have challenged the results and remarked exams before releasing final figures.
General secretary of the Association of School and College Leavers, Brian Lightman is calling for an investigation into the sudden drop in English results.
He has stated that “What appears to have happened is that, halfway through the year, it was decided that too many students were going to get a C grade in English and the grade boundaries of the exam were pushed up very substantially."
"Standards in schools have not changed one iota. It is the grading that has changed.”
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