We won’t turn pupils away, pledges head, Ludlow College’s promise after GCSE marking fiasco (From Ludlow Advertiser)

We won’t turn pupils away, pledges head, College’s promise after GCSE marking fiasco

8:00am Friday 21st September 2012 in Ludlow By Adrian Kibbler

LUDLOW College has pledged not to turn away any students caught up in the GCSE English exams debacle.

Principal Jonathan Davis says that students who unexpectedly came up short in the English examinations will still have a course.

However, it may well not be what they wanted and will cause at best a change of route as they embark upon their life in further education.

“We make students a conditional offer based upon their exam results,”

said Mr Davis.

There are about 20 students from the college intake of more than 300 who have to grapple with not getting the English result they needed.

“We are working with them, no one will be turned away and all will be offered a course. But it is a blow for young people to find themselves in this situation,” said Mr Davis.

A number of alternatives are available, including taking the exam again in November, starting an AS course on a probationary basis or undertaking a one year ‘level two’ programme that would give them a BTEC qualification the equivalent of five GCSEs at grade C.

Ludlow College takes students from all over south Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. At one of its feeder schools, Tenbury High School, one in three students fell short of their predicted grade in English – including students with a string of As and Bs in other subjects.

To make matters worse, the English papers are to be re-marked in Wales.

As a result, someone attending Ludlow College from over the Welsh border could find themselves on the course they want, while a student with the same ability from England has to look at fresh alternatives.

ludlowadvertiser.co.uk/news THE ADVERTISER - Thursday, September 20, 2012 3 News LUDLOWSchool is demanding the re-marking of English papers in a bid to correct what its headteacher believes is an injustice.

Fifteen students at the school have been denied a GCSE grade C in English as a result of the moving of the goalposts in the marking of the examination in the summer.

“I am very disappointed at these changes,” said headteacher Phil Poulton.

“My major concern is that some of those 15 children may have had their prospects hindered, so we will be going for a re-mark on those children.

“It seems patently unfair because it stopped children getting what they needed and it stopped the school getting what it needed.”

For Ludlow School, the changes mean that the English department has been denied its best ever GCSE performance.

In 2011, 67 per cent of students achieved grade C or better in English language – but that dropped to 62 per cent this year.

If the marking regime had not been changed, this would have gone up to 71 per cent.

Mr Poulton said that the impact of the fiasco on Ludlow School and its students was “in line with the national picture”.