Over the last two weeks, many Moorlands young people received their exam results. As a parent of one of those young people who sat his GCSEs, I can assure everyone that I know just how stressful the last two weeks have been.
I send my heartfelt congratulations to everyone who got the results they hoped for and are now able to take up a place at university, college, sixth form, apprenticeship or job. Even though I sat my exams over 30 years ago, I can well remember the feeling of receiving the results and knowing that I could move onto the next stage of my education.
This has been an extraordinary year in so many ways but the fact that grades have been awarded without final exams being sat is one of the most extraordinary things in this most extraordinary of years. I am very aware of how difficult the first few days after the A’ Level results were for so many of you and am very pleased that the Government did the right thing in moving to the grades assessed by teachers, rather than the Ofqual algorithm. I know the work that went into submitting those grades by teachers and it is absolutely right that their assessments of the young people that they know personally are now being used for the final grades.
Many of you contacted me with your own stories. I can assure you that I made sure that Ministers knew about the real-life situations you found yourselves in and I hope it is these examples that helped convince the Government to change its mind.
At the time of writing, we are still waiting for BTEC results to be confirmed. I will keep pushing to make sure that this is dealt with as soon as possible.
