Whether they were being described as “setting students up to fail” or a “national scandal”, GCSE resits in English and maths remained one of the most controversial and emotive educational policies of 2019.

The condition of funding rule may have been tweaked to allow more flexibility to students with a grade 2 or lower, but those with a grade 3 are required to retake the qualification in post-16 study. The results are mixed:  this summer, the proportion of resit students who achieved a 4 fell in both English and maths; fewer than a quarter of them achieved a “standard” pass in the latter.

For many students, that means repeated resits. The flip side is that some students do improve - there were 60,000 who achieved a grade 4 in English or maths this summer alone.

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The tenacity of one GCSE resits student

One of them was Lauren Reid. But the City College Plymouth student had a quite remarkable story.

Thanks to research by Impetus PEF last summer, we know that some students have sat their GCSEs as many as nine times.  What Reid’s inspiring story tells us is that, sometimes, it can be this ninth attempt that makes all the difference.

In August, Reid found out that she had passed her maths GCSE on her ninth attempt. It was her first resit at City College Plymouth after years of failed attempts at school and local sixth forms. “There was a mix of feelings,” she told Tes shortly after finding out. “I found it a lot easier at college than I found it at secondary school, but still, I wasn’t sure. There had been a grade 3 on the sheet every time, and now there was a 4. I brought my mum [to college to collect the results], and she was over the moon. I went and found my teacher and we had a hug.”

Reid was aware of the drop in the pass rate, and had previously considered giving up. Many of her peers most likely would have done. But she persevered - and went on to start a course at university this autumn. “Look at what I did with the little I was given,” she said. “I have come through this now and I am not going to be stopped by anything.” 

Reid’s tenacity and grit have now made her one of the 2019Tes People of the Year.