Hundreds of pupils to resit GCSE exam (From The Argus)

Hundreds of pupils to resit GCSE exam

9:30am Friday 5th October 2012 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter

Potentially hundreds of pupils could next month resit a GCSE exam because of concerns that their original papers were unfairly graded.

Schools in Sussex have signed students up to retake their AQA English language exam after they received grades lower than expected this summer because of the change in grading boundaries.

Patcham High School in Ladies Mile Road, Brighton, has been forced to reshuffle lessons so that revision classes can be held for the resit on November 7.

The Brighton and Hove City Council comprehensive’s headteacher Paula Sargent said pupils were the “human cost of the debacle”.

Concerns were first raised over English language GCSE grades after it emerged that tens of thousands of pupils nationally did not meet their predicted grades.

Although it has been claimed that pupils were not under-marked, exam board AQA has offered a free resit for those who want one.

It is understood, although not confirmed, that the only schools in Brighton and Hove that did not use the AQAexamboard for English language were Longhill High School in Falmer Road, Rottingdean, and Portslade Community Academy in Chalky Road, Portslade.

Sarah Davies, director of English and media at Patcham, said that “almost all pupils” would resit the English language exam.

In a letter to parents, she said: “Obviously we will need to make sure that the students are fully prepared so that they have the best possible chance of achieving a high grade in this exam and so we have put together a programme of lessons in school time in order to do this.”

Pupils at Patcham sat their GCSE English language exam in Year 10 so it will be the current Year 11 pupils who would be retaking their paper.

For the full story see today's Argus.