Many schools said students's GCSE English results were lower than expected

by political editor Paul Francis

Eight out of 10 secondary schools in the county say their GCSE English results were below what they expected, according to a survey carried out by county education chiefs.

In some cases, the results fell by margins that mean more schools could be targeted for government intervention.

Kent County Council says its survey to gauge the impact of a controversial change to grade boundaries made part way through the year showed 82% of the 56 schools who responded reported poorer results than forecast.

The row over the marking of GCSE English exams has triggered protests from many headteachers and the threat of legal action.

KCC's analysis comes as it emerged hundreds of grades were lowered at the last minute when Ofqual - the regulator - wrote to exam board Edexcel telling it to act quickly" to reduce the number of C grades.

It has led to fears that hundreds of students could struggle to meet the threshold for moving on to sixth form or college courses, as a grade C in English is usually required to do so.

It could also have consequences for the number of Kent schools that fail to meet tougher government targets for the number of students securing five or more good GCSEs.

KCC says that as a result of the GCSE marking, the number of schools not meeting the government's targets would rise from four to nine.

Cllr Mike Whiting (Con), KCC education cabinet member, said he backed the idea of students' papers being remarked.

"I would support the idea of young people resitting their exam in November. However, regrading the papers, as they are planning to do in Wales, would avoid asking Kent's young people to go through the stress of another exam."

Cllr Whiting, pictured above, added: "The results have been very hard on so very many young people. We promised that we would speak up for schools and children in Kent.

"As promised, we have written to schools to gather information from Kent's family of schools and have sent it on to the government's select committee - which is taking a very welcome, and vital, look at how this summer's English GCSEs were marked."

He added that all types of school were affected, including grammars.

"The impact has been felt right across the family of Kent schools - academies and local authority schools, wide ability and grammar."

Ian Bauckham, the headteacher of Bennett Memorial School, in Tunbridge Wells, said: "It does not surprise me. I have spoken to a lot of schools who are very concerned by what has happened.

"This is not an issue about schools being unhappy about grade inflation but the enormous unpredictability of what has been done to English.

"Schools have a set of data that is completely unreliable because boundary grades have been messed about with. The exam boards have to bite the bullett and re-grade the June GCSE exam. They have not managed the system successfully and have to go back to the drawing board."