Hackney schools support legal challenge over GCSE results

Students have had the 'rug pulled out from under their feet' by GCSE downgrading, says Meg Hillier MP

The Hackney branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) says Stoke Newington School is one of several educational institutions in the borough to have joined a legal challenge following an exam board’s refusal to regrade some GCSE results from this summer.

Hackney South and Shoreditch MP Meg Hillier is among the politicians who have called for immediate government action over the downgrading of this year’s GCSE English exams. Ms Hillier confronted education secretary Michael Gove on the floor of the House of Commons about GCSE English results in Hackney.

She said: “Students who have worked hard to get the grades they need have had the rug pulled out from under their feet. The unfairness of one student gaining a C grade in January and another gaining the same mark but a D grade in June is staggering. So many young people have had their future plans thrown into question. It is time for Ministers to stop washing their hands of the matter and act to redress this wrong.”

A petition condemning the “unfair” downgrading has also been launched. Jamie Duff from Hackney NUT said that despite an overall borough wide rise in GCSE A* to C there were clear indications that in many instances the English GCSE results, particularly those on the C/D borderline were significantly below previous levels.

At BSix College results were up overall but those taking GCSE English were hit hard by the downgrading. A spokesman for the exam board has said it cannot comment as the legal challenge has now been launched.