On October 18 we were informed that the grade levels awarded to 91 out of 136 of our Year 9 students had been raised - 90 by one level and one by two levels. All of the 136, bar one, had their marks raised, some by as much as 20.
While we should give credit to the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority for admitting that such a huge error has been made, the position at Lampton is not unique and the case made by schools during the past three years - that these tests were flawed and worthless - has fallen on deaf ears. If it is the Government’s intention to publish schools’ results in the form of league tables next year, we have no faith that the flaws in the system will be corrected. Consequently, we will have to devote tens of hours of teacher time to checking the marking of the examiners or risk of a totally misleading set of grades being used as a basis for placing the school in a league table.
These tests are indeed fundamentally flawed and should not continue in their present form.
D M JORDAN Headteacher Lampton School Hounslow Middx.
