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My daughter's A* star prediction has turned to a C : how can this be right?

Lily sitting with her mother Rowan
Lily sitting with her mother Rowan

My day began with a sinking heart. Even before picking up her A-level results we knew my daughter Lily’s grades were not what she hoped for as an email had come through telling Lily that her first choice application had been unsuccessful.

We were downhearted, but pragmatic as we headed to her school, praying for results that would offer some leeway, but soon even those hopes were dashed.

My clever, hardworking child had not been given the three As predicted. Instead Lily had been handed over two Bs and a C for exams she hadn’t sat. It was and is completely incomprehensible. We are all deeply distressed and disappointed.

I suppose at least we are not alone.

Today is an A level results day like no other in the history of these exams. Instead of being rewarded directly for the work they have put in, our students are being given grades by an opaque assessment system implemented by the government, that even the day before results were due to be announced were being tweaked by panicking ministers, to include a half-baked appeal system.

Now as results like  come in, we can see why. As with so much else recently, the government is scrambling to try and shore up the sinking ship that they themselves have scuppered. This  results award system is one that is fast proving to be entirely arbitrary in its decisions and at best is based on a particular school’s past results rather than the students’ individual academic record.

As an author who has built a long career, I have made a point of bringing my children up to believe that the opportunities they get from life will always equal the effort and hard work they put in. Indeed, our prime minister has made this principle central to his ambitions for this country time and time again, with constant talk of ‘levelling up.’

And yet, today his government has demonstrated to a generation of young voters that this is simply not the case. They have awarded them grades that have nothing to do with who they are as a student, or their individual potential, but by making sweeping generalisations and unfair standardisation which has resulted in downgrading result expectations, not by a to-be-expected one or two grades, but by four or even five.

Lily was predicted three As, and to secure her first choice placed at Leeds university she needed to achieve this. We knew that meant serious hard work, and she was focused and working hard to meet that goal when the chance to prove herself was taken from her by the Covid-19 pandemic. I expected her to be relieved when she heard the news that exams were cancelled, but, like many of her peers she was devastated not to have the chance to show her worth through the examinations.  Lily so wanted to finish her school career proving all that she had learnt through her persistence and dedication. She wanted the results for the work she had put in.

In two subjects Lily has been awarded a B, which though disappointing we could have lived with. But in one subject she has been downgraded from an A* to a C. That’s a four grades drop. Even though all the work she completed at school consistently scored A* Even though her mock exam was graded A* and even though her prediction was an A. Given all the supporting evidence, how can moving Lily's grade from A* to C be logical? And as we know it isn’t just my daughter facing this confusion, but thousands of young people across the UK.

Yes, Lily can take it to the recently announced appeal program and she will, but why should she, or others like her have to jump through these hoops made out of governmental incompetence? Why should they have to face losing their much hoped for university places and spending all day on hold to admissions, like my daughter is now, to try and scrape back a little of the chance that is owed to them? Gavin Williamson and Boris Johnson have failed every one of them by not managing this situation with the due care and consideration it required.

And let’s be clear, Lily isn’t from a disadvantaged background. She will be OK in the end one way or another, even if the path she takes isn’t her first choice. But let’s think about those students who don’t have her privilege. What will happen to them?

This generation of students has done nothing to deserve this daylight robbery of opportunity. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken their chance to prove themselves away, and now the government has compounded that devastating reality a thousand-fold. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has apologised and promised to rectify the terrible wrong done to Scottish students. I can only hope that our Prime Minister will show that he does indeed live by his slogan of levelling up, and do exactly that for every student that has been so devastatingly let down today.

Like many parents, my day will end not as it began with a sinking heart - but a furious one.

Rowan Coleman is the internationally bestselling author of The Vanished Bride (Book one of the Brontë Mysteries Series)