Grading U-turn on GCSEs – but no Btec results

Hundreds of thousands of students are receiving their GCSE results today, following a U-turn on grading.

Their big day comes after the announcement that GCSE and A-level students would be able to receive grades based on assessments by schools or colleges, rather than an algorithm, after thousands of A-level results were downgraded last week.

Btec grades were not included in the original U-turn, but on Wednesday – with just hours to go until results day – Pearson said it would regrade Btecs to “address concerns about unfairness”.

The exam board told schools and colleges not to publish level 1 and 2 results in the vocational qualifications on Thursday to give them more time to recalculate the grades.

Schools minister Nick Gibb has apologised to students for the “pain and the anxiety” they felt before this week’s grading U-turn.