Results Day is one of the most emotional days of the year. Hard-working students awaiting their grades; teachers managing the highs and lows, and parents bursting with pride in their children.
This year’s students have done an incredible job under truly exceptional circumstances.
Yet despite our kids’ perseverance and hard work, this week’s A-level and GCSE results have shown that the gap between state and private schools is growing even wider
The number of private school grades marked A/A* at A-level rose by 50 percent more than among comprehensive schools – continuing the damaging trend seen last year.
A similar story is true of GCSE results, where kids on free school meals were less than half as likely to get top grades compared to their peers.
After the government’s disastrous handling of 2020 exams, students, teachers and parents were expecting 2021 to be better. They assumed that a Secretary of State in charge of educating millions of young people would have clear plans in place for different Covid scenarios, and would learn lessons from last summer’s chaos.
Yet once again, we saw last-minute decision-making, uncertainty and huge additional stress for students and teachers from a Conservative government that has abandoned state school pupils.
After a screeching U-turn on holding exams, the government rightly supported a system based on teacher-assessed grades. However, half of teachers report the guidance they were given on awarding grades was inadequate, and the Conservatives rejected Labour’s £15 billion Children’s Recovery Plan to support catch-up for state-educated kids.
The Department was warned repeatedly about the risk this posed to pupils from less advantaged backgrounds. Labour and charities highlighted research showing that private school pupils were benefiting from the lack of a central approach.
The warnings were shrugged off – now they have come to fruition.
After their refusal to properly invest in catch-up, the Tories are risking creating gaps between private and state school students that will last a lifetime, affecting jobs and opportunities for decades to come.
Action on phoney culture wars; inaction to help state-educated kids. We know the priorities of Gavin Williamson and this government, and the effect it’s having on kids.
We need a radical change – before it's too late.
