Saltash head Isabel Bryce slams league tables verdict
A SALTASH head teacher has spoken of the "detrimental effect" the Government's decision to publish league table results this week could have on the school.
Isabel Bryce said her school is in the process of appealing against last summer's GCSE results with the AQA exam board, contesting their maths modular results.
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STUDENTS' SUCCESS: saltash.net GCSE pupils celebrating the results of their November exams, which were announced this month.
She said that until then 66 per cent of students had achieved A* to C grades, but in summer 2012 these took a nosedive to 45 per cent. "This was absolutely not reflective of saltash.net," she said.
The school has since swapped the AQA modular maths for an Edexcel programme.
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Mrs Bryce said the Year 11 students' January GCSE maths results – for exams taken in November – revealed 62 per cent of the 236 students achieved A* to C grades, eight months early.
The remaining 38 per cent will have more chances later this year to improve their grade. "We are so proud of our Year 11 students," said Mrs Bryce.
"That 62 per cent are 18 percentage points higher than similar schools nationally at this stage of the year.
"It shows that last summer's AQA results were completely anomalous and we will continue to do all that we can to fight for justice for the young people involved."
Teachers nationally said it was unfair that exam boards raised grade boundaries 'at the last minute' last summer. A number of GCSE syllabuses were addressed to stop results rising year-on-year and to address concerns of dumbing down.
"The results were a complete mockery of our students' abilities," she said. "There was this ridiculous raising of the grade boundaries without any warning.
"Students should not have had the misfortune to have been caught up in a 'lottery' whereby results were affected by which exam board and particular syllabus a school had selected."
She said saltash.net is concerned the Government's decision to publish the results at a time when appeals are continuing will have a "detrimental effect" on current GCSE students.
"We are delighted for our current Year 11s for doing so well despite having to change course midway. The stress of last term, for teachers and students, was huge and the Government has no idea," said Mrs Bryce.
"We are still fighting and I won't drop it until we get an answer as to how AQA could have behaved so inconsistently."
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