Fury over exams blunder

Jan 14 2008

A SECONDARY school in Sutton Coldfield has complained to Government education officials after a blunder meant its exam results were wrongly downgraded.

Plantsbrook School, in Upper Holland Road, Sutton Coldfield, said the mistake resulted in a significant fall in their benchmark GCSE results, based on five or more top grade passes including English and maths.

The Government's official figures, published last Thursday, gave Plantsbrook's A* to C pass rate as 48 per cent.

But the school insisted today that the accurate figure should be 55 per cent.

Headteacher Tracy Campbell said the mix-up was caused by some students who achieved C grades in English not having their results credited.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families, together with the relevant examination board, were working to rectify the problem.

Mrs Campbell said: "We are very annoyed by this situation.

"As a school, we have done everything right and still the English results of a group of our pupils have not been counted in the tables, even though the youngsters themselves have already received their certificates."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said they were looking into the situation.

She said: "If schools think published data is wrong, they can contact us and we will investigate.

"We will then update the figures on our website where necessary."