The whole Government has been working hard to come up with the fairest system for pupils.'. But he said that there would be "undoubtedly bumps along the road" and staff and pupils will have to adapt to a new way of working. The Conservative former education secretary Lord Baker of Dorking urged ministers to delay the publication of GCSE results, due this week, until the problems with A-levels had been resolved. 'It may be that if there's no other fair method of determining the GCSE results, we'll have to look at that, keep that option on the table for them too.'. Tory former minister Tracey Crouch joined calls for A-level students in England to be awarded teacher-assessed grades as the Ofqual algorithm is 'flawed'. The Department for Education (DfE) has said it is continuing to work with the regulator Ofqual to build as much 'fairness into the appeals process as possible' to help what it described as the 'most difficult cases'. Former Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw said: 'This has been a terrible farce… it is no laughing matter because it has affected thousands of young people whose expectations have been dashed and whose life chances have been affected. Education Minister Peter Weir said opening schools was probably the "top priority" for the executive. Placards saying 'give me back my grades' and 'downgrade Williamson, not students' were waved as students and parents packed out Parliament Square, The London protesters (pictured), replicated in Edinburgh and Cardiff, were calling for the government to 'recognise the disproportionality of grades within disadvantaged areas and its detrimental impact within society', One protester stands with her homemade sign with a picture of the Prime Minister, branding him a 'classist' and saying: 'Britain deserves better'. 'The big downside of just going with teacher assessed grades is the problem of grade inflation, that's a problem because too many people would qualify for university, or further destinations at GCSE. The Stormont Assembly is set to be recalled from summer recess to debate the furore caused by the standardisation formula used for A-levels. ", Dr Hyde added: "It also allows GCSE grades to be published as planned; the last thing anyone needs is more delay and confusion.". And of the more than one million children who attended pre-school and primary schools in England in June, 70 children and 128 staff caught the the dog next door, according to a Public Health England study published on Sunday. Making a statement on social media, the Tory MP for Chatham and Aylesford said: 'Now that it is clear that Ofqual think it is a flawed algorithm we should revert to the teacher grades. 'Those places are now filling up and so the Government just needs to make it absolutely clear on what basis results are being awarded to A-level students, what grades they got, it has got to be fair to those young people and then universities can fill up the places that continue to exist and students can get on with their lives.'. She added: 'At the same time, we do know that universities have capacity, or certainly had at the time that the A-level results came out, partly because, of course, the Government has made it so much more difficult for international students to come to the UK. Kay Mountfield, head teacher at Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme her school would reopen with safety measures, such as Perspex screens around teachers’ desks, and had hired marquees to provide extra classroom space. ... Grammar school headteacher Kay Mountfield said schools like hers have seen "85% of … 'Whoever is in charge, the chief executive and chair, should have been much more high profile and much more visible in explaining to the sector, explaining to head teachers where they are, what has gone wrong and what they intend to do to put it right. "Whilst we accept that the unavoidable outcome is grade inflation, we believe this is the less bad option when tens of thousands of students are facing unfair grades, thousands of schools are facing an as yet undeveloped appeals process and most of us need to concentrate our energy on supporting the Prime Minister's desire to reopen our schools in a few weeks' time. Anyone who has travelled to Manchester from any Tier 4 area should isolate for ten days even if they don't... Is Britain really the sick man of Europe? according to a Public Health England study published on Sunday. 'People in schools are just tearing their hair out at their inability to support students who have had their lives wrecked and they don't know what the process is because we haven't had that guidance published. ... Former Furze Platt pupil to present on BBC Radio 1 over Christmas. Guidance ‘silent’ on masks. Kay Mountfield, the headteacher at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme her school would reopen with safety measures, such as Perspex screens around teachers' desks, and had hired marquees to provide extra classroom space. Holly Jones, a BBC reporter at the bridge when the incident happened, said a van had swerved off the road into a crowd of pedestrians. But the BBC understands the government is considering measures which could see secondary schools operating on a rota in parts of England where there are Covid-19 outbreaks. 'The idea that you have an algorithm to figure out what they might have done in an exam is really impossible and I think that's where the big mistakes will be made.'. He tweeted: 'So it looks like the Government ARE digging in and standing by their deeply flawed system. She told GMB: 'I think it is vital that we give these young people the very best chance in life and use the teacher assessment grades this year. 'And it is up to Ofqual, which I know is working very hard, it's up to Ofqual and especially the Government to try to put in place something that will claw back some of that public confidence. For many it will mean falling out of education. He said concerns about 'grade inflation' could be dealt with by accepting that 2020 would not be used as a benchmark for future years because some of the grades would have been 'overcooked' by teachers. 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