Backwell School botched exam entries for GCSE UPDATED

'Human error' has been blamed by Backwell School for 100 pupils being unable to take some of their GCSE exams.

Headteacher Julian Baldwin said the mistake is being investigated.

It is believed that the error first came to light when neighbouring parents of two students taking the same exams at different North Somerset comprehensives discussed the syllabus and timetable. 

It was then discovered that students at Backwell School who were revising for chemistry and biology had not been entered for the correct modules.

Students will now sit their GCSE science modules in the summer.

Mr Baldwin said: "Clearly we all make mistakes and I will be dealing with the colleague or colleagues who have made these errors.

"But the most important thing is to find out how it has happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again and to make our failsafe procedure even better to make sure we don't have a repeat of this episode."

The school in Backwell became an academy last year and currently has 1,700 students.

Mr Baldwin said he thought the students would probably be disappointed as they had been 'working very hard for these exams'.

He added: "They also understand that they will be in an even better position to take this exam in the summer."

Backwell School recorded its best ever results at GCSE in 2011 with more than 83 per cent of the Year 11 students achieving five A*+-C grades.

And at A-level 98.6 per cent of its 575 of the entrants passed with an A-E grade.Mr Baldwin speaking on local television on Saturday apologed to parents and pupils but assured them that grades should not be affected.

At midday on Monday Backwell School issued a press statement on behalf of head teacher Julian Baldwin.

It said: "A number of students in Year 10 at Backwell School have been affected by an administrative error in the entries for their Science GCSE and will not be able to take their first modules as planned this week. In a letter to parents, headteacher, Julian Baldwin, apologised for the error and explained how the school would support the Year 10 students. 

He said: "We appreciate that your child will be disappointed at this news as students and teachers have been working hard to prepare for the exams. I will be conducting an investigation into how the error has occurred but would now like to inform you of the alternative plans that we have put in place:

•  We would like your child to take the exams for which they have been prepared next week as an internal school exam. This will not count towards their final GCSE Science result but will be good exam practice. It will be marked by our teachers and provide feedback to our students on how they would have done and point to any areas they need to work on.  In essence, we will be treating the exam as a school based mock exam.
• Your child will take the one or two formal modules that they should have taken next week in the summer exam period. We appreciate that this will be an additional workload for them but we will put into place a programme of additional Science revision sessions within the school day to enable them to be fully prepared.
• Following the summer exams, there will be no charge for resits of these modules, should your child wish to take them.

Once again, I would like to apologise for the error and the inconvenience it has caused your child. I would like to reassure you that all the work that they have done in Science is fully relevant to the modules they are due to take. By putting into place the measures that I have listed above, we are confident that your child's result will not be adversely affected."

In an assembly to the students, the headteacher said that after having worked so hard he understood that they would be disappointed not to be able to take the exams this week but that their final GCSE mark would not be any poorer. He explained that these modules are the first of a two year course and that there would be three more opportunities to take them.  The school would provide extra Science lessons later in the year to make sure the students are fully prepared to take the modules in the summer.