A grammar school head has launched a scathing attack on the GCSE system suggesting the exams should be scrapped altogether.

Ken Moffat, head of school at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, says axing the assessments would save valuable time and money.

Despite his pupils achieving high results today, Mr Moffat says GCSEs are like “declaring the score in a football match after 77 minutes – then playing the rest of the game”.

He told the Gazette: “Nowadays youngsters have to stay in some form of education until they’re 18. So what’s the point of assessing them at 16, then again at 18?

“If you look at two great education power houses, Germany and China, both assess students at 18 only.

“It’s worth noting big employers like Price Waterhouse Coopers don’t even bother taking into account GCSE results.”

Mr Moffat says year 11 students, who take exams in May, will generally start revising in March. These are vital months of learning time lost on pointless assessments, he says.

He added: “GCSEs are certainly hugely expensive in terms of time and focus, not to mention the money that our three examination boards make out of them in administering the exams but also in the mass production of booklets and instructional aids on how to pass them.”

He admits that he would happily see all formal Year 11 assessments done away with altogether.

“Having GCSEs is a bit like declaring the score in a game of football after 77 minutes; and then going onto play the remaining 17 or so minutes,” he said.

“Any sensible person is only really interested in the final score.”

Mr Moffat expresses sympathy for heads at schools that perform less well.

“I do think our High Schools are put under ridiculous pressure to explain their GSCE performance and live in the constant shadow of special measures because of them,” he said.

“Is any independent individual really looking at the quality and standard of these exams, before inflating their importance to the level they enjoy today?”

Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys this year saw 96% of students gaining a minimum of five GCSE’s graded A* to C.

At Canterbury Academy, however, that figure today was 38% - down from 43% last year.

Head teacher Phil Karnavas told the Gazette he was “not prepared to engage in the ritualistic exercise in ‘spin’ about GCSE results”.

He said he had “profound reservations” about the GCSE system because of “fear about potential negative consequences on recruitment”.

“The system seems only to recognise and, therefore, value academic ability,” he said. “Thus, in it, those students whose abilities are academic will do better than those students whose abilities are not.

“Those schools which select exclusively on academic ability will do better academically than those schools that do not.

“It is as simple, and as brutal, as that.”

Underperforming schools across the country can face inspection from education watchdog Ofsted.

Where serious concerns are raised, the watchdog can impose special measures and hit the school with a series of conditions that need to be met.

Mr Karnavas said: “I still believe in the comprehensive ideal and I still cling to the view that achievement comes in many, many forms.

“The fact that some students will not do well academically does not mean that they will not do well in life or that they have not achieved in other ways – in sport, in performing arts, in enterprise or in having become a genuinely kind, caring and thoughtful individual.

“If these beliefs mean the disapproval of Ofsted then so be it and I will accept the consequences.”

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