Closing summary
We’re going to close down this live blog now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s events:
- A last-minute government U-turn on English A-level results was criticised by the opposition leader. School examinations have been thrown into chaos by the UK’s epidemic and Keir Starmer said the confusion had been made worse still by ministerial incompetence.
- “Today’s figures confirm that hard times are here,” the chancellor said. It emerged on Wednesday that the UK was experiencing the worst recession since records began. “Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will,” Rishi Sunak said.
- Lockdown measures in Aberdeen will remain for at least another week. The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said the restrictions would need to stay, though she played down talk of them being extended to other areas.
- Aberdeen’s cases primarily affect younger people, it was confirmed. More than two-thirds of the Aberdonians caught up in the outbreak are in their 20s and 30s, and more than 70% of them are male, according to official data. The health board’s figures confirm the cluster centres around younger people who are believed to have caught Covid-19 from a small number of bars.
- A new cluster emerged in Glasgow. Eight cases were confirmed by health authorities, who said many of them were linked to a school in the north-east of the city.
- More than 5,000 deaths are removed from the UK’s official toll after the government redraws its cut-off point. The Department of Health and Social Care said only those who die within 28 days of testing positive will now be counted in the UK-wide tally, though a 60-day period will apply to a separate set of figures to be published in respect of England.
- Police in Manchester said they received widespread reports of flouting of local lockdown rules. Greater Manchester police saw a 25% increase last weekend on the previous one and said they received 540 reports of house gatherings and parties, among other complaints.
If you’d like to continue following the Guardian’s coronavirus coverage, head over to the global live blog:
Updated
Responding to the chief executive of NHS Providers Chris Hopson’s remarks about the need for a “fit for purpose” test and trace system to be put in place within weeks, the shadow health minister, Justin Madders, has said:
We have been warning for months that a relaxation of lockdown measures must go alongside a fully functioning test and trace system. The government need to listen to the warnings of those working on the frontline and urgently step up work to ensure the system works effectively.
It doesn’t need to be ‘world beating’ it just needs to be effective. Ministers should end their reliance on failing private sector companies and support councils to use local expertise and implement targeted test-and-trace programmes.
Updated
UK government removes thousands of people from Covid death toll after redefining it
The Department of Health and Social Care has reduced the UK’s death toll by more than 5,000 following a review of how figures are calculated.
Officials said that, as of Wednesday 12 August, the number of all deaths in patients testing positive for Covid-19 within 28 days was 41,329. Earlier government figures said 46,706 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, as of 5pm on Tuesday.
The DHSC said the change came after the UK government and devolved administrations agreed to publish the number of deaths that have occurred within 28 days of a positive lab-confirmed Covid test result each day.
Previously, the UK government’s figures included the death of anyone who died following a positive test at any point. Public Health Scotland, however, had already taken 28 days as the cutoff point.
The four chief medical officers came to an agreement to use a standard measurement. An additional set of figures showing the number of deaths that occur within 60 days of a positive test will also be published in England.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 56,800 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Updated
Turning back to the new cluster identified in Glasgow, Dr Linda de Caestecker, the public health director at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), has said:
We want to reassure local people and businesses that this cluster of cases of Covid-19 is being thoroughly investigated and managed by the NHSGGC public health protection team.
An NHSGGC-led assessment group working with Glasgow city council met today to undertake a risk assessment and provide advice to the school and other settings the cases visited ... Each of these cases is being managed and followed up in detail, and all of them are isolating at home.
Close contacts are being advised to self-isolate, with health and local environmental health staff “working closely with the school and a number of other local businesses”. De Caestecker added:
All settings that these cases attended during their infectious period are being identified, assessed and are being supported with control measures, and anyone who may have been exposed to these cases is being given appropriate advice.
Anyone affected will be contacted through the Test and Protect service. We want to reassure the wider community and especially pupils and teachers returning to school that there is no added risk due to this cluster.
We also want to remind people to stay off school or work and get tested if they experience any symptoms.
David Linden, the MP for Glasgow East and a former pupil at the school, told the Press Association:
This afternoon, I’ve spoken with the school and I am speaking to NHSGGC to understand better the details surrounding this cluster. First and foremost, public safety is the number one priority and I am reassured that all pupils who tested positive did not attend school today.
I will continue to work with the education authorities and the health board to ensure this situation is managed and that parents can have confidence in sending their children to school.
Updated
Students in Wales waiting for their A-level results will not receive a grade lower than their AS-levels, the Welsh education minister has announced.
Kirsty Williams said she was “confident” the system of moderation overseen by regulator Qualifications Wales and exam board WJEC was “fair for students and robust”.
In Wales, a different model was used to Scotland and nearly half of pupils’ final mark was based on AS-levels completed last year.
This year’s exams were cancelled across the UK because of the lockdown and there are fears the replacement grading system will create a postcode lottery.
Governments in other parts of the UK have introduced changes to their systems and we must make sure that these alterations do not disadvantage Welsh students. Students in Wales, and prospective employers and universities across the UK, can be assured that their A-level grades reflect their work and externally assessed exams.
Almost half the final grade comes from AS-level exams – this is not the situation elsewhere. Therefore, in building on that completed work, I am giving a guarantee that a learner’s final A-level grade cannot be lower than their AS grade.
If a student receives a final grade that is below that of their previous AS grade, then a revised grade will be issued automatically by WJEC.
This will mean – and I have received assurances from Ucas and universities – that students can speak with confidence to their prospective universities regarding their A-level grades.
Williams said she would be asking Qualifications Wales to “move forward quickly” on any adjustments to the appeals process, to ensure Welsh students are not disadvantaged.
I am confirming today that all appeals will be free for Welsh students, to ensure there is no financial barrier to ensure learners feel their exam grades are fair.
Schoolkids caught up in coronavirus cluster in Glasgow
A new cluster of eight cases has emerged in the north-east of Glasgow, including high school pupils whom health officials have told to self-isolate.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the health board for the region, said they are pupils at Bannerman high school in Baillieston, which reopened today as part of the phased return to school across Scotland. The board said none of the affected pupils had been on the premises.
None of the cases are experiencing anything but mild symptoms. The school reopened today but none have actually attended as they are self-isolating at home.
Test and protect staff are contacting anyone who may be affected and there is no current added risk to the wider community due to this cluster of cases.
It said health officials and environmental health officers were working with the schools and several local businesses to trace close contacts of the eight cases.
Close contacts are being advised to self-isolate and being given appropriate advice.
Updated
And he stressed his view that the best thing is to get every child back into school in September.
Is there anything more that I can do in order to make that happen? Well, if there is, tell me about this, and I will go out there and I will do it.
We need to see every child back into school – as someone who has a wife and a brother who works in schools, and someone who has children who have, you know, like every child, suffered as a result of not being, I know that the best thing to do is to get everyone back there.
Updated
The education secretary Gavin Williamson has apologised to pupils for the disruption to their schooling during the epidemic. Speaking to the BBC, he also described the exams system as “robust” and “fair” after concerns were raised that some pupils could have their results downgraded.
The system, for the overwhelming majority of young people, is going to deliver, you know, credible, strong results for every single one of them. It’s a robust system, it’s a fair system, it’s making sure that young people get the grades that they’ve worked so hard towards.
After the latest figures showed the UK is in a deep recession, the professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and former civil servant Jonathan Portes writes:
As I, and most other economists from across the political spectrum, argued at the very beginning of the lockdown, there is no short-term trade-off between lives and economic growth here. And indeed, today’s figures reinforce this argument. Despite the uncertainties, it is clear the UK has done badly both in human and economic terms.
UK's Covid death toll reaches 56,800
A further 77 people in the UK have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive, according to official figures.
The government has said 46,706 people have died in such settings, as of 5pm on Tuesday.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 56,800 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. The government also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Wednesday, there had been a further 1,009 lab-confirmed cases. Overall, a total of 313,798 cases have been confirmed.
Morgan Vine, the head of policy and influencing at Independent Age, said as many as 85,000 people aged 65 years and older may have suffered the death of a partner since the start of the lockdown, which is almost one and a half times as many as in the same period in each of the five previous years.
She said many of those will have complex grief in later life, which she described as having similar symptoms to PTSD. Vine echoed concerns that the guidance for the clinically vulnerable group is unclear, noting terms such as “take particular care” being confusing for people.
We’ve had lots of people get in touch with us who, for example, are in their early 70s, fit and healthy, and think they should be shielding.
Vine said older people needed bereavement and mental health support, adding:
We’re hearing from people who (were) really confident, really fit, really able who are now anxious about going to the town centre. They haven’t been out for such a long time.
Updated
Ruthe Isden, Age UK’s health influencing programme director, told the APPG that governmental guidance did not make it clear what access to services were safe and that some older people were refusing domiciliary care in the community because they felt it was too risky having people coming in and out of their home.
This has had a broad effect on older people’s mental and physical health, some of which we are only just really starting to understand now.
We are starting to see very important and significant evidence that the impact of lockdown, of ongoing social distancing measures, has led to a great deal of what we might say is a deconditioning amongst older people.
People are reporting loss of mobility, increased risk of falls, loss of strength and balance, low mood and people dealing with, particularly dementia, a lack of stimulation which has led to significant levels of cognitive decline.
Updated
The government has not responded to the needs of the care sector as effectively as to those of the NHS during the pandemic, MPs have heard.
Health leaders spoke of concerns about guidance on shielding and social distancing being confusing for older people, which led to some healthy over-70s shielding unnecessarily and some too frightened to visit the town centre.
While issues with personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing still persist in the care sector, MPs on the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on coronavirus heard the NHS received a better response to its concerns. The chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said:
We certainly felt that, in terms of PPE, we very quickly flagged that there was a problem and we then did a very concerted piece of work, working with the government and with NHS England for improvement.
But certainly for our sector, and I accept it absolutely wasn’t the case for the social care sector, the primary care sector and for example the hospice sector ... we felt the government and NHS England did respond pretty rapidly to the feedback that we were giving them.
On testing, Hopson said there needed to be a “fit for purpose” testing regime that needed to be in place by winter. NHS Providers said there needed to be improvements in the current test and trace system before it could be called “world-class”.
We’re sort of getting there but it’s got to be speeded up and it’s got to be in place by winter. And if it’s not, that really is a big problem.
In response to Hopson’s comments, the former health minister Dan Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, said:
One thing that struck me was that you felt that on the NHS side, NHS England were very responsive to the concerns that you raised about the availability of PPE. But to paraphrase ... on social care there was a government that was perhaps to some extent asleep at the wheel in understanding or responding to that sector.
Updated
Hello, this is Kevin Rawlinson back with you for the next few hours. I’ll try to keep an eye on the comments BTL but the best way to get in touch with me is via Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
A further six people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,431, NHS England said on Wednesday.
The patients were aged between 57 and 96 and all had known underlying health conditions.
Two deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
Bill Jacobs, the local democracy reporter at the Lancashire Telegraph, reports that a bar is being investigated over a social media video apparently showing large numbers of customers partying in its outdoor courtyard without regard to social distancing.
The footage shows a crowd of people hugging, dancing closely together, chanting and singing in and around a tented area behind Harvey’s Bar on Cow Lane, Burnley.
Now the borough council’s licensing department and police are investigating the video and whether any action needs to be taken for breach of strict coronavirus restrictions on people from more than one household gathering in force in the town.
Burnley was included in strict new coronavirus restrictions on gatherings in East Lancashire following a spike in cases across the region on 30 July.
While under the tight new rules, the government says people can meet in public outdoor spaces in groups of no more than six people from two households, and that social distancing should be observed at all times with people you do not live with.
A Burnley council spokesman told the paper: “We’re aware of the claims being made via social media and are working with partners to investigate further and identify any appropriate action.”
Updated
Something to cheer you up: the Church of England’s longest serving priest has played an important role in his granddaughter’s wedding despite the coronavirus lockdown.
The Rev Jim Cocke, 94, was the priest for the same parish in Oxford for 63 years until he retired in January and moved to a residential care home in Dorset.
He had been due to give the address at the marriage ceremony of his granddaughter Lucy in April.
But like many other weddings across the country the happy occasion had to be postponed because of Covid-19.
When the service eventually went ahead on 18 July under physical distancing restrictions, only 15 people were allowed in the church and Cocke could not attend in person.
Instead, staff at Colten Care’s Castle View care home in Poundbury ensured he was able to take part.
After the ceremony, Castle View staff facilitated and hosted a Covid-safe visit which meant that Cocke could see the newlyweds face-to-face in their wedding attire.
Cocke, who began his ministry in 1952 and became vicar of All Saints’ in Headington in 1957, said: “I felt very much included in the special day. I thought Lucy looked so lovely.
“It was a great pity not a lot of people could go to the church because of the restrictions, but I am just so proud of her.”
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Hi, Kevin is off for a break so I will be updating the blog for the next hour. Please do send any tips and stories to nazia.parveen@theguardian.com or follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/NParveenG to send me a DM. Thanks.
Two-thirds of people caught in Aberdeen outbreak in their 20s and 30s
More than two-thirds of the Aberdonians caught up in the Covid-19 outbreak are in their 20s and 30s, and more than 70% of them are male, according to data released by NHS Grampian.
The health board’s data confirms that the cluster centres around younger people who are believed to have caught Covid-19 from a small number of bars, which reopened in Aberdeen over the last few weeks.
Chris Littlejohn, NHS Grampian’s deputy director of public health, said that, of 162 confirmed cases reported by Tuesday, 73% were male. Of those, 68% of the 118 men were aged 20 to 39 inclusive and 66% of the 44 women involved were aged 20 to 39. He said none of those infected in that cluster had presented to hospital, which was welcome news.
The majority of those infected with Covid have either no symptoms ore relatively mild viral illnesses. We’re pleased no-one has been hospitalised.
The major concern during an outbreak was that serious cases rose and led to wider community transmission. There was no evidence of wider community transmission in this Aberdeen cluster, he said.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, told the Scottish parliament on Wednesday the partial lockdown imposed on Aberdeen last week, which included the closure of all bars and restaurants in the city, would be extended for at least seven days.
NHS Grampian said on Wednesday the latest total for the Aberdeen bars cluster was 177, up by 15 overnight. In addition, 940 close contacts had been identified, although that figure could include people identified multiple times, who were part of a family or other group.
The Aberdeen data mirror evidence from other UK cities, including Trafford, Manchester, where many infections in a cluster in July were aged 25 or below, and then latterly aged 26 to 64.
Updated
Another five people who tested positive for coronavirus in Wales have died, bringing the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 1,586. Public Health Wales said the total number of cases in the country increased by eight, bringing the revised total of confirmed cases to 17,484.
It may become necessary to relax the university numbers cap, according to the former Ucas chief executive, Mary Curnock Cook. She has told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme:
The problem for universities – leaving aside the kind of operational mess and everything being late – the problem for universities is that there’s been a number cap applied to students because early in the crisis everyone thought that demand for university would be down, whereas now all the indications are that aggregate demand for higher education will be up.
So I have a feeling that for universities themselves the problem that they will have in responding to this uncertainty is that they are capped at 5% growth this year.
The problem is that it sounds as if a lot of students won’t have their appeal grades confirmed for a number of weeks and that, of course, makes life very difficult for them, which is why I think it may be a good idea to relax this cap because if a university is up against the cap on recruitment then they’re going to have to make some very difficult decisions about potentially taking students who have got slightly lower grades, or waiting and hoping that the appeals come through.
When Clare Marchant, the chief executive of Ucas, said blandly that sixth-formers issued with A-level results should “move on” and take university places that are available, she overlooked a brutal truth – that education and social mobility are inextricably linked.
School isn’t just about memorising Shakespeare sonnets and the periodic table. For many of us, it’s about using talent, creativity and graft to ensure you don’t end up in the same place you started. To have the opportunities your parents never had and to end up in the same room as the people you once read about.
To have your fate determined by factors outside of your control, such as the unconscious bias of teachers and your school’s league table performance, is not only unfair – it’s also deeply damaging.
Updated
Ibuprofen does not increase risk of death from Covid-19, a study suggests.
Early on in the pandemic, there was controversy over the use of ibuprofen after a French health minister advised against it.
Scientists in the UK launched a review to assess ties to the drug and Covid-19. The Commission on Human Medicines’ expert working group concluded: “There is currently insufficient evidence to establish a link between use of ibuprofen and susceptibility to contracting Covid-19 or the worsening of its symptoms.”
But a new study, which examined data from eight British hospitals at the height of the pandemic, found that the regular use of painkillers including ibuprofen, naproxen and diclofenac did not increase the risk of death from the disease.
Their study, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, examined information on 1,200 patients and found no clear evidence that routine use of non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) was associated with higher Covid-19 mortality.
Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, Cardiff University and King’s College London found the death rate was similar compared to those who took NSAIDS and those who did not.
Separate research is going on to determine whether the ibuprofen may actually prevent severe breathing problems associated with Covid-19. It is hoped a special formulation of the cheap anti-inflammatory drug, to be delivered at a certain point in illness among hospital patients, will reduce severe respiratory illness.
A Highland community council is providing “toilet trowels” in up to 100 lay-bys across the north of Scotland as a last resort for tourists who have been caught out by the continued closure of public toilets.
Lochbroom community council, which covers a chunk of the north-west around Ullapool, will also install signs directing visitors to where there are open public facilities and advice from Mountaineering Scotland on considerate camping behaviour, alongside making the trowels available for people to bury their own waste if they are in desperate straits.
Communities across the Highlands have reported concerns about hygiene and littering following an influx of tourists since the easing of lockdown restrictions.
Updated
Aberdeen lockdown measures remain in place
Lockdown measures put in place in Aberdeen last week will remain, Sturgeon has said.
The Scottish first minister said last week that the restrictions would be imposed to try to contain a local outbreak. Bars and restaurants were closed, as well as the return of the five-mile travel limit from homes.
Sturgeon said there had now been 177 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak in Aberdeen, while 940 contacts had been identified. There had been no deaths in Scotland in the last 24 hours, she added.
The first minister thanked the people in Aberdeen, after she said police had reported a high level of compliance with the additional lockdown measures.
I know people in Aberdeen, who of course are today dealing with severe weather as well as Covid, will be disappointed with this decision, but I want to thank them for complying so well with the measures that we put in place last week.
She also said that there was not yet a need to place extra restrictions on the county of Aberdeenshire as a whole.
I want to stress that nobody wants these restrictions to be in place for longer than is necessary. They will be reviewed in one week’s time and as soon as we can relax any of them, then we will do.
Updated
The former leader of the Scottish Conservatives has used her first appearance at first minister’s questions for almost a year to “get tore in” to Nicola Sturgeon over her government’s “exam fiasco”, after the furious row over downgrading of exam results which forced a major U-turn from Scotland’s education secretary, John Swinney, yesterday.
In a knockabout session, Ruth Davidson sneaked in jibes about Joanna Cherry (a potential leadership rival to Sturgeon) and the former SNP leader Alex Salmond. For her part, Sturgeon insisted her government had done the right thing, saying: “We are big enough to say we got it wrong, to apologise to young people and to put it right,” while accepting that they had “thought too much about standardisation in the system rather than individual experience in what is a unique year”.
Davidson told Sturgeon her loyalty to Swinney was fine, but her loyalty should be to parents and pupils who deserved a new education secretary. Sturgeon replied that she was “not sure loyalty to colleagues is a strong suit for Ruth Davidson”, a reference to the sudden departure of Jackson Carlaw as Scottish Tory leader and immediate coronation of the MP Douglas Ross, who yesterday gave Davidson the newly created title of leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist MSP group.
Davidson herself quit suddenly as leader of the party nearly a year ago, partly in protest at Boris Johnson’s election as UK leader and his stance on Brexit, and also to focus on her young son.
Sturgeon also confirmed before questions began that Aberdeen lockdown restrictions would remain in place. She also said that a major incident had been declared following a train derailment near Stonehaven, and that there were reports of serious injuries.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest news:
- A last-minute government U-turn on English A-level results was criticised by the opposition leader. School examinations have been thrown into chaos by the UK’s epidemic and Keir Starmer said the confusion had been made worse still by ministerial incompetence.
- “Today’s figures confirm that hard times are here,” the chancellor said. It emerged on Wednesday that the UK was experiencing the worst recession since records began. “Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will,” Rishi Sunak said.
- Police in Manchester say they have received widespread reports of flouting of local lockdown rules. Greater Manchester police saw a 25% increase last weekend on the previous one and said they received 540 reports of house gatherings and parties, among other complaints.
Updated
Turning to figures that show the UK is in the deepest recession since records began – the first official economic contraction for 11 years – Starmer said:
Nobody can avoid that fact that there was going to be an economic crisis as a result of the pandemic. We knew that.
But we now find ourselves in a double whammy. We’ve got one of the worst death rates across Europe and now we’re going to have one of the worst recessions.
So, serious questions have to be asked about the strategy the government is adopting here. The United Kingdom should not be in this position.
You have to ask yourself the question: ‘Why on earth is the government going so wrong on this?’ The government needs to accept responsibility and start answering questions.
Updated
Speaking in Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, where he has been meeting teachers to discuss school reopening plans, Starmer added:
The idea of using mock results is deeply flawed. Talking to teachers today, it’s obvious that they expect, across the piece, that young people will do better in the real exam than they’d done in the mock.
It’s not going to work, it’s not going to wash.
The cause for concern here is that, if this is anything like Scotland, it will be the more deprived areas where the grades are down graded. And that’s simply not acceptable.
This is the chance for people to go on to higher education, to go on to apprenticeships. This is their life chance that we’re dealing with here. The government’s got to do far better than it’s done.
Starmer said ministers needed to allow individual appeals and to mandate colleges and universities to be flexible.
All of that needs to be put in place and it needs to be put in place before tomorrow is out.
Updated
Government exams U-turn a 'complete fiasco', says Starmer
The Labour leader Keir Starmer has attacked the timing of the government’s announcement.
This is complete fiasco. It was obvious that this was going to be difficult but it’s been weeks or months in the coming. To have an 11th-hour decision that’s caused widespread chaos amongst teachers I have been speaking to, families and young people – it smacks of incompetence.
It’s shambolic. It’s hours to go before the results. The problem is obvious and it’s been sitting there for weeks or months. We now face possibly 40% of young people having their grades changed and downgraded, possibly. And this risks robbing them of their future.
There has to be a basis for individual young people to be able to appeal against the grading.
Updated
Earlier, we brought you an examiner’s view of mocks, now here’s a pupil’s view: Cheyenne Williams, from Barnhill community high school in north-west London, said 11th-hour changes to the way A-level results will be assessed “will only help to further stress on students”. The 18-year-old told the Press Association:
I find all of these last-minute changes to be unprofessional and now I feel even more confused and stressed.
A majority of students don’t take mock tests seriously as we have other academic obligations and are mainly focused on the actual exams at the end of the year.
She also said she feared some students may have cheated during their mock exams.
Personally, my school takes mocks really seriously as we take them in an exam hall with invigilator ... However, I do think that other students could still find ways to cheat. For example, if they find the mock paper online beforehand or if their school doesn’t supervise mocks as harshly.
Universities UK, the body representing mainstream higher education institutions, says it is seeking “urgent clarification” about how appeals over A-level grades in England will operate, as some universities warn that it will prolong the clearing process if students shop around for places.
Prof Julia Buckingham, its president and the vice-chancellor of Brunel University, said:
Our advice to students is to carry on as planned, which means – if you miss out on the grades for your offer – don’t panic. Speak to your teachers for their advice and get in touch with your first-choice university as soon as possible – universities will be as flexible as they can in these unusual circumstances – and look at the courses available through clearing.
This last-minute policy change presents a number of challenges for universities and we are seeking urgent clarification from the Department for Education on a range of issues including the likely scale and timing of appeals.
Updated
One teacher and examiner from Cumbria, who’s asked not to be named, has written in to detail some of the practical problems encountered with mock examinations:
Whenever we do mocks in my school, we have a problem of students using Google to find answers to the papers. My subject has three papers so, after they sit the first one, some of them will search online to find the others.
The exam boards have some papers that are supposed to be secure but they never are and can be found online without much difficulty.
Some of our students also have tutors and it is not uncommon for them to have already done the paper we use with them.
Sometimes, therefore, we use mixed papers from different years or we make our own papers. These obviously have no grade boundaries.
Finally, some students are absent during the original mock and so have to sit it later. Invariably, their friends will have leaked info to them.
Responding to the “triple lock” A-levels announcement, the Lib Dem education spokesperson and party leadership candidate Layla Moran has said:
Young people are rightly worried that their futures are being derailed by a botched grading system. Ministers have long been warned to take extra steps to make sure pupils are not unfairly penalised, but using mock examination results won’t resolve this.
Given that there is no consistent approach to mock examinations across schools, this could be more of a barrier than a benefit for many pupils. Had ministers consulted teachers they would have known this. Pupils deserve better.
Pupils must have the chance to appeal their grades directly at no cost, and to present evidence that reflects their performance and progress to date. Ministers must also be crystal clear about how they will enable pupils who wish to re-sit, again at no cost.
Staying with the A-levels story, the deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Reading, Prof Parveen Yaqoob has said the move will provide some reassurance about grades, while adding greater uncertainty around university admissions.
Students can be reassured that universities already have a good idea about which students will have their places confirmed, and this change won’t have a big impact on that.
In a sense, students wanting to go to university this year are still in a strong position to find the course and the institution that’s right for them
Responding to the Department for Education’s announcement of the “triple lock” approach to A-level results in England, the president of the National Union of Students, Larissa Kennedy, has said:
We called this week for the UK government to ensure any exam resits were free to the student, and we welcome confirmation that this will be the case.
However, the rest of the triple lock approach is wrong. The use of mock exams results risks making a mockery of the whole system, given the lack of a standard approach to mock exams and the fact they are not taken by all candidates.
This is a botched attempt at a solution which does not fix the problem created by the classist, racist moderation system, that students’ results will be based on where they live not a true reflection of their own abilities.
We still believe that England should follow Scotland in scrapping moderated grades. With its triple lock policy, all the government has done is lock in inequality.
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I’m logging off from the live blog now and handing the reins to my colleague Kevin Rawlinson. Thank you for all your emails and contributions this morning.
Not everyone is cross about the English exams U-turn. A student from the east Midlands writes:
Couldn’t be more happy about the U-turn to use mock exam results today. For me, a high achiever in a deprived area, watching the Scottish results day rollout was devastating. Mock results can vary school to school granted, but the majority of schools practiced some form of formal assessment and mock either in year 1 or 2 and if this is something to fall back on, fantastic! It’s not perfect for everyone but it’s sure better than a computer algorithm.
Teacher-assessed grades shouldn’t be ignored, neither should coursework. My problem with teacher-assessed grades though is that at the time it was announced, in student group chats some students boasted about messaging teachers on Teams. The class acted like a bunch of lobbyists emailing and calling the teachers to convince them of what grade they deserved which really irked me. Also, for quieter students it seemed disadvantageous as teachers’ favourites appeared clear.
Furthermore, in my college we never had a solid teacher for politics. Because of this, our teacher grade was based on who seemed the smartest, as no teacher had been able to get to know us for long enough. I do trust in teachers’ integrity overall but no solution is perfect and this should be standardised by mock results, coursework and formal assessments – NOT the classist system of area and school record.
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If you were wondering what will happen to exam grades in Northern Ireland, well, according to a handy Q&A just published by the Press Association, results there will be based on teachers’ predictions and statistical modelling.
Teachers were asked to predict the grades they thought pupils would have achieved had exams gone ahead, based on coursework, the result of mock exams, and homework.
Schools were also requested to rank pupils in each subject.
But Northern Ireland’s exams body, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, said students would have a broader scope to appeal against their A-level and GCSE grades.
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540 reports of house parties in Greater Manchester last weekend – police
Greater Manchester police (GMP) say they have received 1,106 reports of Covid-19 breaches last weekend – a 25% increase on the previous weekend – and warn A-level students to celebrate/drown their sorrows sensibly when they get their results tomorrow.
The force received 540 reports of house gatherings and parties and 48 reports of licensed premises breaching the restrictions between Friday 7 and Sunday 9 August.
New legislation published last week included additional restrictions on socialising in indoor spaces in the region and parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire. The regulations give police powers to issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to those who continue to blatantly breach the Covid-19 legislation.
Officers attended 40 of these reports which led to 10 arrests and 11 FPNs being issued.
In a statement, GMP said its officers foiled an illegal car meet in Wigan and shut down two illegal gatherings in Salford and Rochdale.
Assistant chief constable and chair of the Local Resilience Forum, Nick Bailey, warned young people in particular to behave themselves:
National figures show that people between the ages of 18 and 41 have been issued the most FPNs. Coronavirus doesn’t discriminate – absolutely anyone can get ill whether you’re old or young and it’s imperative that we continue to treat this situation seriously and adhere to the rules in order to reduce infection rates. Even though you may not suffer serious symptoms yourself, by breaching the regulations which are put in place for public safety, you could end up spreading the infection to loved ones who may not be so fortunate …
I understand that A-level results are coming out this week and people will rightly want to celebrate. However, please be mindful of the Covid regulations in your celebrations as we do not want to spoil what should be a joyous occasion by issuing FPNs at any house parties or illegal gatherings. It is worth noting that recent spikes in Greater Manchester which led to the additional restrictions were centred around house parties with 17- and 18-year-olds.
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Social media is full of good wishes and crossed fingers for the bulk of Scotland’s nursery and school pupils who return to full-time education this morning, although heavy storms overnight along the country’s east coast mean that the reopening of a number of schools in Fife and the north east has been delayed after routes became flooded.
Older pupils in particular must still be reeling from the emotional rollercoaster of the past week which saw thousands of exam estimates significantly downgraded, especially in schools in poorer areas, and then reinstated yesterday by the education secretary, John Swinney, following furious protests.
But despite this U-turn, the Times Scotland this morning predicts the SNP is on course for an unprecedented majority at Holyrood next year. The latest YouGov figures represent the highest levels of support for the SNP – at 57% – and independence – at 53% – ever recorded by the company.
The polling, which was conducted during the exams row, finds that Nicola Sturgeon’s personal approval rating is 50, compared with five when YouGov last asked the question a year ago. By comparison, Boris Johnson’s rating is -50 having fallen by 16 points, suggesting once again that Sturgeon’s handling of the coronavirus crisis puts her party on a strong footing for next May’s Scottish parliament elections, and for securing a mandate for a second independence referendum.
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If you are wondering what is going on in Wales, read on.
The Welsh government insisted yesterday that they wouldn’t be following Scotland’s lead. During a briefing on Tuesday, housing and local government minister Julie James said that Wales uses different modelling to Scotland and that nearly half of pupils’ final mark was based on AS-levels completed last year.
There had been concerns from students that such a model would mean pupils at schools which had historically not performed as well would be unfairly penalised.
But James said: “We are obviously very keen that our learners are given the accolade they need for the hard work that they’ve done but also that they get the grades that they deserve, and that those grades are robust and will take them forward into their lives with confidence.”
We will obviously be asking today whether the Welsh government’s position will change in light of the English u-turn.
I’ve had lots of emails from nervous students in England. Here is a strong one from a young man in Devon, nervously waiting to hear if he will get the grades to take up a place at Oxford:
The government’s last minute change to include mock results in my opinion is another in a long line of superficial measures, which I struggle to see will help many people. It certainly doesn’t help me, as my mock results were pretty inconsistent with my usual performance as I had a busy December (with exams at the beginning of January).
I would like to echo the problems regarding standardisation and also highlight that mocks (at least at my school) do not cover the whole course and in my opinion can’t be substituted for the actual exams.
Also, I believe that this disproportionately helps the students who are at the top of the class anyway, as not many people in my experience take the mock exams particularly seriously, which is another reason why it is unfair now to base our whole result on it.
Furthermore, I feel it should be fairly obvious that the government has a more accurate alternative than mock grades: teacher assessments! Why can they not just use these for their “triple-lock”? I know my school had a proper procedure for their grades and I’m sure others did too - all of this focus on percentage point increase makes us feel like we are just numbers!
I feel it is unfair for the government to have thrown a spanner in the works here, particularly given the already confusing and scary situation.
Meanwhile in Scotland, pupils have gone back to school. Some teachers are excited, like the Principal and CEO of South Lanarkshire College:
Very excited to have reached this milestone - teaching staff returning to campus in a blended way from today. Support services staff have worked tirelessly across the summer to ensure a safe return. We’ve got this! 👏👏@CollegesScot @ColDevNet @RichardLochhead @jamiehepburn pic.twitter.com/BECHk1Jm6e
— Aileen McKechnie (@AileenMcKechnie) August 12, 2020
Some pupils are less keen:
20 yards from the school gate... pic.twitter.com/s69CjbonEi
— Gerry Braiden (@BraidenGB) August 12, 2020
Thank you to everyone who has written in — particularly teachers and students — to share their thoughts on the exam grading fiasco. There has been a welcome deluge, and I won’t be able to use all contributions, but I am reading them all gratefully and will be passing on to colleagues covering the story in greater detail.
This one caught my eye, from a teacher at a large sixth form who also marks A-levels for a major examiner. He makes three strong points:
1. Mock exam results are part of a centre’s formative assessment.
Their purpose is to tell teachers what progress a student is making, where their weaknesses lie, and what we need to do to help them. Mocks don’t always cover the whole course, do not always use all of the exam board’s marking criteria, and are not standardised in the way exam boards standardise final A-Level marking. Final exams are summative and fulfil a different purpose.
To use a political analogy, it’s like using the local election results to decide who represents us in the house of commons. How would the government feel about that, I wonder?
2. This sorry episode needs to trigger a reflection on the whole A-level system, and the preoccupation with league tables.
We’ve had these in place for decades, and yet that system continues to fail disadvantaged students, to fail black and minority ethnic students trying to get in to competitive universities, and continues to fail the country in helping society to level up. This episode could be a golden opportunity to set up a commission looking at what strategies for post-16 assessment would best deliver the kind of improvements we want to see, making the kind of changes to society we all agree need to be made.
3. What a waste of time
The department of education and Ofqual have been working on this for months. If this is No. 10 jumping in and forcing changes in “panic-mode”, then what they’re really doing is telling every single A-Level student, and every single teacher and headteacher that the system of ranked teacher assessments, which we spent weeks agonising over earlier in the summer trying our best to be fair to our students and faithful to the marking criteria, was a complete waste of everyone’s time and emotional energy. None of it matters, because they can just ditch that and go for a mock grade instead.
This just in, from a teacher of 15 years experience. She is also an A-level exam board examiner:
I am utterly horrified by the government’s announcement of the so-called ‘triple lock’ for A level results. It is utterly unworkable and hugely unfair to allow students to ask for their mock grade to be made their outcome. Gavin Williamson clearly has no idea how schools operate and has not consulted with teachers regarding this announcement.
Mock exams are not rigorous nor a level playing field. They are taken at different times of the year - sometimes November, sometimes January, sometimes March. Some schools will have shut before the mocks were sat or marked. This means that they aren’t comparable between centres. They aren’t even necessarily comparable between subjects within the same school as some departments might use last year’s embargoed paper so will be very close to exam conditions where others may have very different exam papers, particularly when mocks are sat before the course ended. Additionally, some papers and results will have been thoroughly moderated to check marking, but others might not have been. This is utterly unfair to candidates - it is, I feel, against natural justice to have such a completely arbitrary system. Mocks are not a fair metric to judge students by as they are simply not comparable.
The most important thing to note is that we already factored in those inconsistencies with regards to mocks, and then used other data such as assessment, coursework (which otherwise would be completely ignored this year), AS outcomes and a comparison against historic data to give the centre assessed grade. The allocation of centre assessed grades took weeks of work - it doesn’t reflect the way UCAS predicted grades are made in any way and the inconsistencies in those is one of the reasons I have seen quoted as to why teachers’ predictions are suspected.
The government seem determined to ignore the incredibly detailed and thorough work teachers did in submitting centre assessed grades. I note that Scotland has come round to accepting our professional judgement and I implore the government to abandon this unfair and unworkable shoddy compromise and instead reinstate the professional judgement of teachers.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, was asked on Sky News this morning why the UK’s economy has been so hard hit by coronavirus. He thinks it’s because we are more sociable than other nations. Make of that what you will:
The primary explanation is the composition of our economy. Social activities — for example going out for meal, or going to the cinema, shopping, those kind of things — comprise a much bigger part of our economy than other European countries. So in a situation where you literally shut down all those industries for three months it will unfortunately have an outsize impact on our economy.
“Social activities… comprise a much larger share of our economy.”
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) August 12, 2020
Chancellor Rishi Sunak tells Sky News why the UK has been hit harder than other G7 economies by the #coronavirus pandemic.#KayBurley
Get more here: https://t.co/utdSWxfc7L pic.twitter.com/S0szfCe4hX
Another teacher — this time from Hampshire in the south of England - has written to express his concerns about the exam results u-turn:
I do feel for able students at low performing schools, but this is probably a significant minority of students, and should have been looked at individually. Grade inflation will hurt all students long term.
As a school we carefully looked at students, and fitted our predictions to previous results +/- 2%. If all grades are increased then my students will suffer because we didn’t over-predict, which is a long-running issue with hopeful teachers, I know as a senior teacher of maths with many years experience.
The teacher, who asked for his name not to be used, added that he believes he caught Covid-19 in March — probably from a child via their parent, who subsequently tested positive — and is still suffering mild long term effects. He says he is a very healthy 40- something with shielding parents he has looked after through lockdown and has understandable concerns about getting back to class:
I want to teach, but am worried!
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Teachers and students in England are confused about how the government’s “triple lock” on exam grades will work in practice.
One teacher writes:
A substantial issue is consistency. For example, for my A-level students I don’t actually give them a mock grade as I want to show the students that grade boundaries change every year. Therefore, they are given the score they got on that paper and then 3 years of different grade boundaries in which they can then see what they would get each year. This encourages them to see it as about the marks, not the grades. They have never received a centrally stored mock “grade”. Therefore, can my students simply pick the lower grade boundary years and get better grades?
If anyone from the department of education is reading, please can you answer this teacher? (I will ring the press office too).
I’d love to hear from young people waiting for their A-level and GCSE results in England: do you feel happy that you can now fall back on your mock grades and will have the opportunity to re-sit the exams in autumn?
My email is helen.pidd@theguardian.com - please make clear if you are happy for me to use your response in this blog.
Interesting thread from the Guardian’s education editor, Richard Adams, about the government’s about-turn on exam results in England. Richard believes the move to allow students to use mock exam grades will not put the controversy to bed.
Close to midnight last night the DfE in England got around to issuing a notice on how students can use mock exams to replace their moderated A-level or GCSE grades... https://t.co/86e8GBQW1n
— Richard Adams (@RichardA) August 12, 2020
Much unhappiness among the legal eagles of Greater Manchester, where Manchester crown court will stay closed for the rest of the week after six members of staff tested positive for Covid-19.
Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service (HMTS) told the Manchester Evening News last night that the court will remain closed “until further notice” after court and security staff tested positive for coronavirus.
The court only recently started hearing trials again, under pressure to get through a backlog of cases which already stood at 37,000 even before lockdown across England and Wales.
Tim Storrie, QC, is one of many barristers exasperated in the way the closure was announced, saying “trust evaporates” in the system when the legal profession is not properly briefed on the latest developments.
Six members of staff. Trust in HMCTS evaporates when the profession has to learn this from the papers. https://t.co/uczwZFYZe6
— Tim Storrie QC (@timstorrie) August 11, 2020
Jaime Hamilton, QC, said he was “pretty cheesed off” to find out via Twitter.
I am someone pretty well informed about this sort of thing. I read with care everything that comes through my Circuit. And I can say quite firmly that I am pretty cheesed off to find this out through Twitter. HMCTS need a rapid lesson in communications and how to treat people. https://t.co/nRJiFoLmGP
— ViewFromTheNorth (JHQC) 🐝 (@jaimerh354) August 11, 2020
The court building was forced to close for a deep clean last Thursday morning, but reopened later that afternoon.
But on Monday, the court had to shut again, after further number of people tested positive for the virus over the weekend, the MEN reported. All have provided details of their close contacts.
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has responded to today’s bleak economic figures, which show Britain has entered the deepest recession since records began.
“I’ve said before that hard times were ahead, and today’s figures confirm that hard times are here,” he said.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will. But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity.”
The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell in the second quarter by 20.4% compared with the previous three months – the biggest quarterly decline since comparable records began in 1955.
Read the full story by my colleague Richard Partington here.
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Unsurprisingly, Labour has something to say about the government’s change of heart on exam results in England and Wales.
Shadow education secretary Kate Green, the MP for Stretford and Urmston in Greater Manchester, said one of the problems is many students would not have sat mock exams.
“I don’t think this is a perfect answer at all to what is now becoming a really chaotic situation,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“And very, very worrying for (A-level) students the day before they’re due to get their results finding the system changing again.”
She added: “Not all students will have even taken mock exams and what we’ve now got is a system which clearly is not fit for purpose. The government itself is clearly acknowledging that by announcing more and more changes to it.”
She insisted there needs to be a “proper robust” appeals process for students so that they are not dependant on “systems that may not fairly reflect the work that they’ve done”.
Giving students the opportunity to retake A-level exams in October is “not an adequate response”, Green said: “While it’s useful to have as a backstop, there are a couple of concerns with it. That will come too late in the day for students who, for example, want to start a college course in September, they won’t have their results on time.”
She questioned how the retakes will be organised: “Schools are already having to make a lot of changes to the school day, to the school premises, to how they organise school when children go back next month because of the need for social distancing.
“So we’re still waiting for more information as to how it is that schools will be supported to run these retakes. It’s important to have them as a backstop, but that is not either an adequate response.”
The schools minister has refused to apologise for the last minute u-turn over exam results in England, insisting there has been “no confusion” over how they will be awarded.
Talking on BBC Breakfast, Nick Gibb defended the government’s eleventh hour decision to allow A-level and GCSE students in England to use their mock exam results.
“No, there’s no confusion. We’ve been clear from the very beginning,” said Gibb about the announcement last night of a “triple lock” which means students getting A-level and GCSE results can accept that grade, based on teacher estimations, or change it for a mark gained in a mock exam. Or they can instead choose to take the exam in the autumn.
“We apologise to nobody for finding solutions, even at the eleventh hour, to stop any student being disadvantaged from this system,” said Gibb.
The move followed a climb-down in Scotland yesterday when the SNP-led government agreed to reinstate over 100,000 exams grades following a furious row that saw pupils protesting over “classist” downgrades.
You can watch a clip of Gibb saying all of the above with a straight face — if you’re into that sort of thing:
"We apologise to nobody for finding solutions"
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) August 12, 2020
Nick Gibb MP, Minister for School Standards, tells #BBCBreakfast he won't apologise for the last minute change to the exam appeal process, which was announced just over 24 hours before #Alevelresults day.https://t.co/7hf3CTNfwr pic.twitter.com/JtM77WKqRB
Good morning from sultry Stockport. I’m Helen Pidd and I will be looking after the blog for a few hours this morning. You can email me helen.pidd@theguardian.com
*This post was edited to clarify that it relates only to England.
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