Yorkshire summit over GCSE marking dispute

Leading national figures and local head teachers from both the state and private sector will be among the speakers.

The authority has been at the forefront of a national campaign to get papers regraded after it emerged exam boards had moved grade boundaries between January and June.

This meant that potentially tens of thousands of pupils across the country, including around 400 in Leeds received a D for English this summer when the same work would have earned a C if it had been marked at the start of the year.

A campaign has been mounted which includes eight councils and more than 20 schools in Yorkshire to get these papers regraded.

Now Leeds City Council is to host a summit over the issue on Tuesday October 9 at the Town Hall which will be opened by the authority’s deputy leader Councillor Judith Blake.

She said: “We are really pleased that we have been able to secure some excellent speakers at such short notice. This summit promises to provoke some passionate debate and discussions not only about the unfair grading of GCSEs but also the wider issues affecting the future of secondary qualifications It is so important we do not forget about the young people mixed up in this, who, through not fault of their own, had their work devalued. This summit will help us keep the issue live.”

Speakers at the summit include Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, John Townsley, executive principal at Morley Academy, Paul Brennan, the deputy director for learning at Leeds City Council, Mike Gibbons, the principal and chief executive of The Grammar School at Leeds and Lucie Lakin, the vice principal of Carr Manor Community School in Leeds.

The national consortium which includes individual pupils from Leeds has submitted a formal letter to the examination regulator Ofqual and exam boards AQA and Edexcel, and are currently awaiting their response.

The eight councils from Yorkshire involved in the campaign to mount a legal challenge are Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Hull, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield and York.

It also includes the Association of School and College Leaders, the National Association of Head Teachers, the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, the National Union of Teachers, the Girls’ Schools Association, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the Academies Enterprise Trust and the Independent Academies Association.

Councils in Yorkshire have played a leading role in the campaign to get papers regraded. The Yorkshire Post revealed a day after GCSE results were announced that Leeds and Bradford were both considering taking action amid concerns about the level of A* to C grades in English dropping.