Hundreds of students in Northampton are expected to resit their English GCSE exam next month following a row over the grades awarded this summer.
Ofqual, England’s exams regulator, has come under fierce pressure after it emerged that students who took the GCSE English exam in January benefited from more “generous” grading than those who took the exam in June.
Caroline Chisholm School, Northampton School for Boys (NSB) and Northamptonshire County Council are part of a consortium of pupils, schools, councils and professional bodies that have mounted a legal challenge to the grades.
In the meantime, schools have been arranging for pupils affected by the grading row to resit the exam on November 7.
At Caroline Chishom School, more than 50 pupils are going to retake the exam, including 20 pupils who are not in the sixth form and have left the school.
Other schools affected by the English grading problems included Kingsthorpe College, The Duston School and Weston Favell Academy.
Headteacher Tony Downing said: “This is unprecedented at our school but we felt we had to do this as the grades were so adrift this summer.
“A lot of students are coming back to have another go. The majority are people who got Ds aiming for Cs but we also have some who got Bs aiming for As.
“We still hope the legal challenge will lead to the students getting the marks they deserved in the summer, as they have done in Wales.
“But many schools have taken the view they should arrange a retake as back-up just in case.”
The legal challenge is due to be submitted to the High Court in the next week.
Last week Ofqual responded to a pre-action letter sent by the alliance, vowing to “rigorously defend” its decisions over this summer’s English results.
The letter, sent to the AQA and Edexcel exam boards as well as Ofqual three weeks ago, set out plans for legal action over decisions by the boards to increase the boundary for a grade C in GCSE English between January and June.
It also proposed taking action against what they claim was a failure by Ofqual to address the situation.
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