Campaigners welcome judicial review into exam grading

The legal challenge is being brought against Ofqual and the exam boards AQA and EdExcel over the way in which marking boundaries were moved this year meaning the same standard of work received different grades depending on when it was assessed.

A national alliance, which includes 11 councils and more than 20 schools from Yorkshire, applied for a judicial review into the issue after claiming it led to thousands of pupils unfairly receiving a D grade when they would have earned a C had their work been submitted in January.

The court hearing will be held in London.

The row started on GCSE results morning as some schools across both Yorkshire and the country reported English grades down on what they had predicted.

Leeds City Council has played a leading role in calling for the GCSE English papers to be remarked.

Councillor Judith Blake, executive member for children’s services in Leeds, said: “Thousands of young people up and down the country have been affected by this grading fiasco and it is on their behalf that we all welcome the start of the judicial review.

“We are determined to get a fair decision for these young people, which is why we have pushed for the judicial review to take place. I hope that good sense will prevail and that it results in a positive outcome for those that have been unfairly affected.”

A total of 167 pupils, 150 schools and 42 councils from across England and six professional teaching bodies are taking the joint action.

Campaigners say an estimated 10,000 students who took their English GCSE exam in June 2012 missed out on a C grade as a result of the grade boundary shift.

Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, which is part of the alliance said: “The GCSE English debacle has affected the lives of thousands of young people whose futures have been altered by a statistical aberration.

“We hope the courts will see sense and order a regrade, thus giving those who sat the exam the result they deserve. Moreover, we would like the court action to send a clear message to Ofqual that changing the grade boundaries mid-year was unfair and those who have the best interests of children at heart will do whatever it takes to restore justice.”

The exam regulator Ofqual released a report last month which laid the blame for the grading issue on the intense pressure on schools to reach targets, which it said led to some teachers over-marking coursework and exam boards having to move grade boundaries as a result.