BRIGHTON and Hove headteachers have spoken of their disappointment and frustration after pupil's A-level grades were slashed.

Several schools in the city have reported that the centre assessed grades issued to pupils were lower than those submitted by their teachers.

BHASVIC principal William Baldwin described the results as "unfathomable" as the school saw its results fall - despite national results reportedly rising by two per cent.

The school confirmed that 33 per cent of its final grades were lower than those submitted by teachers.

As a result, A*-B grades are nearly 5 per cent down on last year and the school's overall A-level pass rate is 99.3 per cent which is 0.5 per cent down on 2019.

Mr Baldwin said: "It is unfathomable that as national results have gone up approximately 2 per cent, ours have gone down.

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"It seems to me as if the moderation process has ignored the upward trend in our results and the significant ‘progress’ or value added outcomes that BHASVIC students get.

"We are hugely disappointed and frustrated that this has happened on some of our courses and angry about the impact it will have on some of our students – it doesn’t seem fair or right – particularly against the political rhetoric of ‘no individual will suffer as a result of the cancellation of exams’.

"We will be looking to appeal some of these outcomes."

Mr Baldwin was not alone in his frustration at the hastily assembled grading system, made necessary after the coronavirus crisis forced the Government to scrap exams this year.

The Argus:

Cardinal Newman Catholic School principal described the decision to downgrade some students as "inexplicable" while Varndean principal Donna-Marie Janson said that half of her pupils had received an "inaccurate grade".

She said: "There are some disappointments.

"Our team worked really hard to work out accurate centre-assessed grades for every student.

"It's really, really disappointing that across the whole country that the grades awarded by the Government don't reflect these centre-assessed grades.

"It isn't systemic as there are different subjects and different exam boards.

The Argus:

"But it's quite hard for students to take.

"The appeals process changed yesterday and I'd expect it to change again. It's not 100 per cent clear.

"When the Government announced yesterday mock exams were taken into the account, that was the first time I'd heard as a sixth-form principal.

"But we do have some fantastic results today and the number of students who received A* to Bs is up on last year, though not as much as we would've thought.

"It's nice we can have a celebration here today as many students haven't seen each other together since March."