A head teacher has branded today’s A and AS level results moderation “arbitrary and unfair” in an angry and heartfelt message to parents.
Justin O’Sullivan, headteacher at Cardinal Newman Roman Catholic Comprehensive in Pontypridd is sending out an appeals sheet for parents to complain directly to local MPs and MS.
He said he will also lodge a complaint at the way grades have been arrived at this year after exams were cancelled because of Covid-19.
Some pupils were marked down four grades by examiners and nearly four in ten grades were lowered across Wales.
In a message to parents on the school website Mr O’Sullivan said: “I am very sorry if you or your child has been failed by our education system in this round of examination results. I will be working to try to resolve the situation the best I can.”
He also tweeted to say thousands of children had been let down and he was angry and disillusioned.
Headteachers have been warning that the method arrived at to award grades after exams were cancelled would disadvantage students, especially higher achievers in lower-achieving schools.
Many angry teachers have also contacted WalesOnline to complain about the process and the grades, which they've described as a kick in the teeth to hardworking pupils.
The standardisation algorithm used to award grades was fed information including the grades teachers recommended, called Centre Assessed Grades, and then also looked at past work and exams. This was then standardised comparing the past performance of schools and year groups, among other measures. The method was agreed by exam regulator Qualifications Wales and exam board the WJEC.
Qualifications Wales said last week that teachers had been “generous” and data from the regulator shows thousands of A and AS level exams have been marked down from where teachers assessed them to be.
An outcry across the border in England prompted the Welsh Government to review the process at the last minute. No student in Wales will now get an A level grade lower than their AS last year.
However a teacher at a different school, who spoke to WalesOnline but wanted to stay anonymous, said that AS grades often served to push teenagers on to do better and weren't a good guide to A2 grades.
He said: "I'm a teacher. I came back from the school this morning having discovered that the grades I'd predicted for my pupils had been moderated downwards by two whole grades - for each pupil.
"They basically got what they'd achieved in Year 12. I appreciate that there has to be a moderation process. I understand that Year 12 results should be considered and that historic centre performance should be considered. That's all perfectly sensible.
"However, all of us in education are pretty aware that Year 12 often serves as a kick up the backside and that students often resit units and improve in Year 13. That was very much the case for my students who had shown improvement in their class assessments which included mock exams for the resit units.
"Now that data was used in a pretty rigorous process internally at the school, where staff moderated each other's grades and a member of the senior team checked our CAG's before we submitted them.
"Many of us have worked as examiners before and so we we were confident that we were pretty accurate. I had my concerns at how historic centre data would be used as some subjects have very small numbers which creates a lot of variation from year to year. However we trusted that the process would lead to a fair outcome.
"To find that the grades I've given have been downgraded to such an extent is a real kick in the teeth for the kids because it doesn't reflect their progress. They've been denied the opportunity to show their progress via exams, now they've been unfairly labelled by these downgraded grades which will have a material effect on many of them.
"What appears to have happened is that Year 12 results and historic centre performance has been weighted too heavily in the moderation process and the flaws in that approach don't appear to have been taken into account.
"I don't blame WJEC directly. At some stage they must have had the green light from the Welsh Government. Ultimately the buck stops with Kirsty Williams and I think she needs to address the fact that there's an inherent unfairness in the process that her department has OK'd.
"I'm frustrated because they've had four months to get this right. We've not had to submit any supporting evidence. The WJEC casually employ examiners who could have in this instance have been used in the moderation process to consider centre supporting evidence being teachers or ex-teachers themselves.
"It would have prevented this process from having been such a blunt instrument and brought a degree of sensitivity to the particular context of the student and school. I honestly feel as if in the range of possible outcomes we've been given the absolute bottom end.
"I don't think we're the only ones to have experienced this. Anecdotal evidence is beginning to stack up on social media. I wonder to what extent this has been a problem. I will be looking at the appeals process next. Having said that, Kirsty Williams needs to get a grip of this problem and quickly.
"I hope that's a fair and balanced reflection. I know it's not been the easiest year in education but I do feel that this could have been done better."
The row is already spreading to next week’s GCSE results. Wales’ Education Minister Kirsty Williams has promised she will review GCSE grades here if it any changes over the border in the next few days would put pupils here at a disadvantage.
Ceri Reed from campaign group Parents Voices in Wales said: “I have emailed Kirsty Williams today requesting that the A level model is used for GCSEs so that previous attainment in autumn 2019 and spring 2020 benchmarks minimum results for learners also. I’m very concerned about the moderation of whole schools.”
