There are few more stomach-churning moments than finding out the exam results on which a future career may, in theory, depend. So far, so normal then for the candidates finding out today the results of the A and T-level examinations, the latter being for more vocational subjects. But for the cohort who sat exams this year, it really was not business as usual. They were the first public exams the pupils sat after their GCSEs were cancelled at short notice by the then-education secretary, Gavin Williamson.
That was bad news for those who rely on last-minute exam performance; their results were estimated on previous work and teacher assessments. And then there were successive school closures because of Covid — five months in the first instance, followed by four months a little later. That was almost a year’s worth of education simply written off. That damage was compounded by the radical difference in teaching between state and independent schools during the pandemic.
