The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-06)

4 The Sunday Times February 6, 2022

NEWS

that do not accurately reflect their aca-

demic abilities.

Those who feared that the cause of

social inclusion and widening participa-

tion in universities would be set back

years are seeing those concerns borne

out, with so many places bagged by

already advantaged students holding top

grades that were not necessarily awarded

fairly. How could universities discern the

genuinely talented from those given a leg

up into the ivory tower?

It leaves us this week with a choice

between two evils.

A return to exams will be damaging to

all the groups in society shown to be

ALASTAIR

McCALL

Editor, Parent Power

with the biggest increases in A* grades at A-level

Rank School Location

2019

A* (%)

2021

A* (%)

Percentage

point increase

1 North London Collegiate School London 33.8 90.2 56.

2 Derby High School Derby 6.5 53.9 47.

3 Woldingham School Caterham 15.8 62.3 46.

4 Eltham College London 29.1 72.2 43.

5 Royal Grammar School Guildford 35.5 77.3 41.

6 St Swithun's School Winchester 18.2 59.2 41

7 Putney High School GDST London 27.4 67.7 40.

8 Cardiff Sixth Form College Cardiff 51.8 91.2 39.

9 Loughborough High School Loughborough 19.3 58 38.

10 Withington Girls' School Manchester 31.8 70.2 38.

includes A-level equivalent grades

Rank School Location

2019

A* (%)

2021

A* (%)

Percentage

point increase

1 Tiffin School Kingston upon Thames 32 67.1 35.

2 The King David High School Manchester 18.2 50.6 32.

3 Sutton Grammar School Sutton 17.6 44.7 27

4 King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls Birmingham 18.5 44.5 26

5 Pate's Grammar School Cheltenham 33.3 57.6 24.

6 Bishop Vesey's Grammar School Sutton Coldfield 17.3 40.1 22.

7 Southend High School for Girls Southend-on-Sea 7.4 29.6 22.

8 Sale Grammar School Sale 11.7 33 21.

9 The Latymer School London 17.8 38.3 20.

10 Altrincham Grammar School for Girls Altrincham 27.8 46.6 18.

THE TOP 10 STATE SCHOOLS

includes A-level equivalent grades

Source: The Sunday Times Parent Power (2019 edition) and school websites (2021 data)

The

corruption

of the

grade

process

beggars

belief

NORTH LONDON

COLLEGIATE

SCHOOL

PERCENTAGE-POINT RISE IN A* GRADES, 2019-

ST DIGITAL

See the full school tables at

sundaytimes.co.uk

worst affected by the pandemic — the

socially disadvantaged; children on free

school meals; those who have missed

most school through Covid-19, self-isola-

tion or teacher absence; those who

lacked computers, laptops, reliable wi-fi

and parental support.

For these children, this summer’s

exams can never be fair, no matter what

simplifications to the papers are put in

place. Their disadvantage is baked in.

due to sit public exams in the past two

years will be without sympathy for the

disruption, mental anguish and loss of a

normal school experience.

But these results cannot simply repre-

sent “benefit of the doubt” judgments on

pupils sitting on grade boundaries — they

must clearly include crude attempts to

preserve the advantages that children at

our leading independent and state

schools have always enjoyed.

Children at these schools do well at

A-level and GCSE every year. They could

have continued to do well instead of

gorging on the top grades and devaluing

them for everyone else. It is difficult

to believe that any school could

achieve such a massive improvement in

their academic results in a 24-month

period.

What were the teachers and head

teachers who approved these grades

thinking? Possibly about the threat of hot-

shot lawyers getting involved in challeng-

ing grades that weren’t high enough.

Given that it is largely — but not solely —

an independent school problem, did the

financial transaction of school fees cloud

collective judgment?

The consequences are far-reaching

and being mopped up presently in uni-

versities up and down the land. Not only

have children missed out on education

in the pandemic, but many have grades

The only way to fix this mess: get

children back into the exam hall

THE TOP 10 INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

with the biggest increases in A* grades at A-level

U56% U43% U38% U35%

ELTHAM

COLLEGE

WITHINGTON

GIRLS’ SCHOOL

St PAUL’S

GIRLS’ SCHOOL

ALAMY; MALC MCDONALD; SUE ADAIR

Parent Power

However, the risk of not having exams

is a possibly fatal undermining of our

exam system as we know it. The current

year 13s would leave school having never

been examined, having also missed their

GCSE exams in 2020. Universities would

be sifting through the wreckage of that

for the next three or four years.

Grades would remain at an all-time

high, and memories of normal propor-

tions of A* and A grades would become

more distant and difficult ever to return

to. Further traction would be given to

those arguing for the abolition of parts of

our exam system, particularly GCSEs,

which inflated grades have done so much

to undermine.

It is an irony that so much exam “suc-

cess” ultimately represents failure.

Failure of those in the teaching profes-

sion that sanctioned unjustifiable

increases in top grades; failure of school

governance to challenge the school lead-

ers willing to sign off on those grades; and

failure of government (after the algorith-

mic debacle of 2020) to provide any kind

of framework or effective intervention

when 2021’s grade inflation became

apparent.

Our survey shows not all schools

played the system, however. In our tables

there are examples among the leading

academic schools — especially in the state

sector — of grades awarded with integrity

and probity. They should be com-

mended. If all schools had behaved in the

same way, teacher-assessed grades

(TAGs) would not be a by-word for declin-

ing standards and prizes for all.

But as ever in life, the actions of the rel-

ative few have a wider impact on the

many. We are left with no viable alterna-

tive but a return to the examination halls

and centrally moderated results. The dis-

advantaged children will suffer — don’t

they always? — but it is the price we will

pay for the excesses of last summer and

to prevent inflicting academic chaos on

our universities. A step back towards nor-

mal grade distributions is essential.

And the “grade” for TAGs? Not so

much a B minus as Unclassified.

Power independent school

rankings for nine of the past

ten years, A*s rose from 52.

per cent to 87.5 per cent.

Derby High School saw A*

grades rise from 6.5 per cent

to 53.9 per cent, a 47.

percentage point rise, second

only to North London

Collegiate. At Eltham College

in southeast London, A*

→Continued from page 1

Private

schools

‘exploited’

Covid

grades rose from 29.1 per cent

to 72.2 per cent, a 43.

percentage point rise.

Robert Halfon, the Tory

chairman of the Commons

education select committee,

warned that the “ginormous”

increases could have cost

pupils at state schools, which

did not inflate their results to

such a degree, a place at

leading universities, adding:

“Far from creating a level

playing field, yet another

ditch has been created for

state school pupils to fall

into.” Bridget Phillipson, the

shadow education secretary,

called for an inquiry.

While there was also grade

inflation at state schools, the

scale was smaller. Just two

state schools make the top 50

of a combined table of private

and state schools ranked by

the size of the hike in the

proportion of A* grades.

Tiffin School, a boys’

grammar in Kingston upon

Thames, came 19th after

raising the proportion by 35.

percentage points from 32

per cent to 67.1 per cent, and

the King David High School, a

Jewish school in Manchester,

has the 28th biggest increase

in the proportion of A*s, up

32.5 percentage points from

18.2 per cent to 50.6 per cent.

Guy Sanderson,

headmaster of Eltham

College, said its success was

“a reflection of the hard work

of our bright students who

prepared well for exams...

and our highly capable and

committed staff body who

adapted seamlessly to a

robust online teaching

programme through the

pandemic.”

St Paul’s Girls’ School said

it was satisfied that it had

applied the system in the

“most robust, fair, and

accurate manner that we

could”.

Winchester College

declined to comment. North

London Collegiate and Derby

High School did not respond

to a request for comment.

Ofqual said: “All heads of

schools and colleges

submitted a formal

declaration on the accuracy

and integrity of grades and

processes supporting them.

This year, with the return of

exams, we are taking steps to

return to pre-pandemic

grades.

“With exams, all students

will be assessed, and their

work will be marked and

graded, in the same way.

There will still be a safety net

for students sitting exams this

summer, but overall grades

will not be as high as they

were last year.”

Today’s exposure of the rampant grade

inflation at some of the country’s leading

private schools makes the most compel-

ling argument yet for a return this sum-

mer to traditional A-level and GCSE

examinations.

Our investigation demonstrates an

industrial-scale distortion of outcomes,

a corruption of the grade-awarding proc-

ess that beggars belief. It was perpetrated

not by the schools filled with children

severely affected by the educational melt-

down triggered by the pandemic, but by

schools apparently shoring up the inter-

ests of children (and parents) likely to be

among the least affected.

The routine doubling, trebling and

even quadrupling of the proportion of A*

grades at A-level is hard to justify.

No parent with children at school or

Sir Philip Pullman, David

Baddiel and Nadine Dorries,

the culture secretary, have

joined a growing backlash

against the comedian Jimmy

Carr for a “truly disturbing”

joke about the Holocaust.

Carr, 49, made a crack

about the death of tens of

thousands of Travellers and

Gypsies in his Netflix show

His Dark Material, released in

December.

“When people talk about

the Holocaust they talk about

the tragedy of six million lives

being lost to the Nazi war

machine, but they never

mention the thousands of

Gypsies killed by the Nazis,”

Carr said. “Because no one

wants to talk about the

positives.” The live audience

of the stand-up show laughed

and applauded.

The show’s title was

borrowed from Pullman’s

fantasy series, His Dark

Materials. Pullman, 75, found

the gag “abhorrent,

sickening”. “I’d be very glad if

he called his show something

else from now on,” he wrote

on Twitter.

David Baddiel, 57, the

author of the bestseller Jews

Don’t Count, thought the joke

“cruel and inhumane and

mean-spirited and racist”.

The culture secretary

said Carr’s words were

“abhorrent and they just

shouldn’t be on

television”. Tighter

laws would “very

shortly” be able to

hold TV companies

to account,

Dorries, 64, told

Times Radio.

More than 7,

people have signed a petition

calling for Netflix to remove

the segment. The Holocaust

Memorial Trust and the

Auschwitz Memorial have

also criticised Carr.

The Traveller

Movement said that

Carr’s gag was “truly

disturbing and goes

way beyond

humour”.

Netflix

declined to

comment.

Carr’s agent did not

respond to requests

to comment.

@IAmLiamKelly

Backlash grows over Carr’s ‘sickening’

joke about Gypsies and Holocaust

Liam Kelly

Arts Correspondent

Jimmy Carr: calls for

Netflix to take action