Pupils lose 
year’s work 
as teacher 
disappears 
at academy

The sixth-form students had to redo coursework after the unnamed member of staff stopped teaching at City Academy in Bristol – and now cannot be found.

Officials say the science tutor left the academy last summer but failed to leave students’ coursework behind – meaning they had to retake the whole year.

The BTEC Level 3 Applied Science two-year qualification was based on coursework, rather than exams.

It meant that 11 sixth- form students had to redo the vast majority of work.

Learning that the coursework had gone missing in September, several students had to retake one year.

The school says at least one student also had to do two years’ worth of work – in just one year.

It made several attempts to track down the lost coursework and the teacher to no avail – but assured students they could get back on track.

It has now emerged that at least four students had fallen short of what they hoped to achieve.

It left their planned future in doubt after they tried to cram all of the work into the 13/14 academic year.

One BTEC student said she was “angry and upset” by the outcome.

Another, a former Bristol Brunel Academy student, said she had regretted enrolling at the academy.

She said: “I wouldn’t recommend going to this sixth form. I’ve gained nothing here in two years and it’s been wasted time for me.

“We trusted the school but it has failed us. None of us have had an apology.”

City Academy’s principal Gill Kelly said: “In September 2013 it became apparent that a member of staff who left the academy that summer had not left behind the coursework she had been marking.

“Despite the academy’s best efforts to contact the teacher and locate the coursework, this was to no avail.

“The students concerned were given assurances they could complete the qualification in the space of a year.”