A LEVEL students in South East Cornwall will be collecting their exam results tomorrow (Thursday Aug 13) amid some exeptionally unusual circumstances.

This year’s cohort of Year 13s were sent home from school in March at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, along with other students all over the country and around the world.

Having not been able to sit their final exams, the students have been awarded grades by their teachers based on previous performance. These grades have then been moderated by exam regulator Ofqual, taking into account a school’s recent exam results.

In a last-minute change of policy, the Department for Education has promised a ’triple-lock’ on students’ results. Any students who are not happy with their moderated grades can appeal, and can choose either to receive the grade achieved in their mock exam, or to sit another exam in the autumn.

The same policy will apply to upcoming BTEC and GCSE results.

The announcement came after a reversal of the grade moderation carried out for thousands of students in Scotland. There was outcry there, after the system used to moderate teachers’ grades seemed to put students from poorer areas at a significant disadvantage.

In England there has also been concern that the moderation system would see high-achieving students from ’low-achieving’ schools penalised.

Schools minister Nick Gibb said he would not apologise for changes, even last minute ones, which meant that students would not be disadvantaged.

But Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton called the late change of policy ’chaotic and panicked’ and said that mock exams were not standardised between schools.

Students who don’t make their required grades for university entrance are being urged to contact their desired place of study: UCAS, the universities and colleges admissions service, says that universities are being ’as flexible as possible with their entry requirements in these unprecedented times’.