Ofqual’s appearance in front of the House of Commons Education Select Committee will be one to remember for a number of reasons. It included the sort of lines that would in “normal times” be talked about for weeks.

The regulator’s chair, Roger Taylor, said, for example, that what became apparent in the days after issuing A-level results was that “neither the equalities analyses, nor the prospect of appeals, or the opportunity to take exams in the autumn, could make up for the feeling of unfairness that a student had when given a grade other than what they and their teachers believed they were capable of, without having had the chance to sit the exam”.

Private candidates: Ofqual says private candidates ‘missed out most’

Ofqual U-turn on A-level and GCSE results: FE reacts

Ofqual: Grades algorithm always doomed but ‘not biased’

Mr Taylor also said that the statistical standardisation process had not been biased, despite admitting that the “impossibility of standardising very small classes” “benefited smaller schools” and “private schools in particular”.

Private candidates left without A-level results

But for me, it was his comments on private candidates that really struck a nerve - many of whom did not receive a grade this year. “I have huge sympathy with these people - clearly they are some of the people who have lost out most as a result of the decision to cancel exams,” he told the committee. And I fear he might be right.

A private candidate, of course, is one who does not attend a school or college but is instead associated with that institution only for the purposes of the exam. And that is where the crux of the matter lies. For these learners, the U-turn on A-level and GCSE grades did not bring the relief of knowing that the school they had built a relationship with was now responsible for their grade - unless that grade was lower than the one they received previously.

Private candidates, apart from a small number for whom a centre was found, did not receive centre-assessment grades because they didn’t have a centre that would hold any evidence on them - teachers there simply were not able to make any judgement on how they could have performed. That means they are now left with no option but either to move on without this particular qualification (if, indeed, that is an option) or to sit an exam in the much-discussed November exam series.

Over the past few weeks, I have been contacted by a number of private candidates on social media. We know they include a lot of students already significantly disadvantaged, such as adult learners and students who were unable to attend classes due to illness (their own or that of someone in their household). It also includes students sitting A levels in a community language.

The barriers these students have faced are already significant. They also, over the past few months, have missed out on the crucial network that a class can provide - peers in the same position who can offer support and be supported in return.

One wrote to me saying: “There are thousands of us who have been told we are not getting grades, thousands of us who are being forced to take out ANOTHER year and be two years behind normal academic progression in order to retake the exams.”

Another, who said she had chosen to resit her A levels because her father had been “on his death bed” during her 2019 A-level sitting, said she felt taking the exams at a private centre - at significant financial and emotional cost - was the only way to pursue her dream university course. “To resit A-level exams, for many of us, is the only way for us to move forward as we don’t have the comfort of generational wealth, family savings, internships, travel-infused gap years and other opportunities and/or opportunities that money can bring to make us stand out in our CVs,” she told me.

“We lived an extremely isolating year full of a lack of social cohesion, where our only friend was our textbooks.When friends move on and move away but you’re still stuck in the same spot for a year, it’s really difficult to cope with the sadness, depression and isolation caused by being out of a routine and getting only minimal human interaction,” she added. “It is extremely frustrating how a majority of the A-level 2020 cohort were given a U- turn.”

The emotional toll that the past few months has taken on her and others like her is obvious and tangible. Ofqual said this week that only 3,300 private candidates received A-level grades- that compares to over 8,500 last year. For everyone else, months of uncertainty and further isolation lie ahead, while everyone around them moves on. In this week’s education committee hearing, MPs voiced their fears that private candidates would be further disadvantaged in the autumn because their late results would mean they might have to defer their place at university or college. That cannot be allowed to happen.

Because they don’t regularly attend in classrooms - even virtual ones - these thousands of learners are easy to forget. But when the time comes for them this November to show their potential, the sector needs to make sure their future is still waiting for them.