A Levels: Carre’s Grammar School and High School praise pupils’ hard work

Nick Law, Executive Head Teacher of the Robert Carre Trust said: “Today we celebrate and recognise the hard work our Year 13 students have shown throughout their courses and their time with us.

“It is such a shame that we are not able to celebrate with them, or console as is sometimes the case, as the schools in the Robert Carre Trust, Carre’s Grammar School and Kesteven and Sleaford High School, took a different approach with regard to the issuing of results in August from previous years. Due to safety concerns around COVID-19, results were emailed to students on the morning of the results.

“Members of staff have been available via telephone and e-mail throughout the day to help with any enquiries regarding examination results and support those students who have needed it.

“In terms of the process of awarding the grades schools were asked to make their best assessment of what grade the student would be most likely to receive and to place candidates in rank order.

“The purpose of this ranking was to allow adjustments to take place to ensure the distribution of grades at a national level was similar to previous years. This is a process that has never been attempted before and was forced by circumstances which nobody could possibly have foreseen.

“Staff worked diligently to provide grades for students and to place them in rank order as fairly and accurately as possible and it may be that there is some mismatch between centre-assessed grades and the final grades awarded by exam boards to ensure consistency in grade distribution between years; this, we hoped, would be recognised in the process that was used.

“We are delighted that despite the government moving the goalposts by introducing a ‘triple lock’ for this year’s results, which they did only this week, the majority of our students have not been disadvantaged in terms of the next stage of their education and lives.

“However, it is clear that many students are not happy with their results as they do not represent a fair reflection of their potential this year and we shall support them in challenging their grades.

Jo Smith, Headteacher of Kesteven and Sleaford High School said: “It has been a time of real uncertainty for all our young people who ended their school careers prematurely in March but now we hope they can start to plan their next steps from September onwards. Whilst some might assume that students would welcome the cancellation of exams, many of our students described a feeling they had been cheated of the chance to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in demanding assessments. Feelings of loss and anti-climax in March were quickly replaced by uncertainty which has lasted for several months. Today we are able to congratulate them, and celebrate the well-deserved and exciting futures they have ahead of them.”