Ofqual suggests support for Durham RAAC school is 'unfair'

Young people hoping to get into university face an anxious wait ahead of getting their A-level results on Thursday, but those from St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham feel they have been severely disadvantaged.

The school was unable to open last September after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) meant many classrooms were deemed unsafe.

Students were forced to learn from home and then in the sports hall or corridors until temporary accommodation could be created in the car park at County Hall in Durham and at Ushaw College five miles away.

Parents staged demonstrations in support of the school (Image: Northern Echo) Calls for special dispensation for those taking crucial exams appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

Now Sir Ian Bauckham, chief regulator of Ofqual, said it would be ‘difficult’ to allow a special uplift for ‘RAAC’ schools and then not make adjustments for other factors like teacher shortages and ‘inadequate’ facilities.

The Ofqual chief said he would be ‘surprised’ if RAAC disruption faced by schools and colleges in England affected overall exam results this summer.

Nicola Cook, parent to a year 13 child with additional SEND needs said: “Sir Ian’s comments are out of touch with reality.

“Clearly, he has no comprehension of the unmitigated disruption our children have faced over the last full academic year.”

Lousie Goreham McGill said St Leonard’s students have not had a level playing field.

She said: “How come it’s unfair to our students that they missed out on so much education?”

Jill Robinson added: “They talk about how ‘every day matters’ in a child’s education, except, of course, when they have three months missing from their education that the school couldn’t provide due to emergency provisions.

“It’s a disgrace that no concessions have been given.”

Students who took their GCSE exams and are getting results next Thursday have also been affected.

The parent of a year 11 pupil said: “I have been beyond disappointed by the response of the DFE, Ofqual, JCQ and exam boards.

“No special consideration has been secured for the students in terms of their exam grades to take into consideration this unique situation.”

One dad said: “This matter is about future life chances for my children and many like them across the country who are going to be collateral damage to a failed policy of not rebuilding schools when required.”

Students at St Leonard's have been deeply affected by the RAAC crisis (Image: Northern Echo) A headteachers’ union has said it is ‘concerned’ about the possible impact of the concrete crisis on exam performance after a number of schools were forced to offer remote learning when sub-standard RAAC was found in buildings just days before the academic year was due to start last year.

A report earlier this year called for pupils at schools where teaching has been badly affected – such as St Leonard’s Catholic School – to have their exam results lifted by up to 10 per cent.

Sir Ian said: “It’s very difficult to know how you would draw a line and maintain fairness if you were going to say that it would be right, for example, to give a 10 per cent uplift to one set of circumstances, but not to a range of other circumstances that other people might argue have impacted the quality of education in the schools that they’re running, or they’re working in, or attending.

“So the importance of fairness I think does mean that we have to apply the same rules, the same principles to everybody across the piece when it comes to formal public exams that give those qualifications and grades that will stay with students all the way through their lives and act as proof of what they knew, understood and could do at the point where they were assessed.”

Sir Ian Bauckham (Image: GOV.UK) Department for Education (DfE) figures, as of February 8, show 234 education settings in England have been identified as having collapse-risk concrete in their buildings.

Of these, 94 are listed as secondary or all-through state schools, while 11 are post-16 colleges.

This year, exam boards have offered extended coursework deadlines – up to 45 days – to schools and colleges who have struggled to access specialist facilities for non-examination assessments due to RAAC.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has said ‘special consideration’ – which is given to a candidate who has temporarily experienced illness, injury or some other event outside of their control at the time of their assessment – will not be granted to pupils who faced disruption to their learning due to RAAC.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “We don’t feel that they were adequately supported by the previous government in this task, and we are concerned about the potential impact on exam performance.”

A study by education experts from Durham University in January called for pupils in St Leonard’s and other similarly affected schools to be given “qualification outcomes equivalent to what would have happened in the absence of the crisis.”

Its authors, Professors Stephen Gorard and Nadia Siddiqui from the university’s Evidence Centre for Education, suggested the pupils’ exam grades could be fairly increased by up to 10 per cent this summer.

Prof Gorard said the exam cohort at St Leonard’s “lost time, lessons, and access to teaching resources for a substantial period” due to RAAC.

He said: “I still think as a one-off measure that cohorts in that school and the few like it deserve some extra consideration.”

A DfE spokesperson said high and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

The spokesperson said: “We know that RAAC was disruptive for schools and colleges.

“Alongside Ofqual, we have asked awarding organisations to agree to longer extensions for coursework and non-exam assessment, where possible.”

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Mary Kelly Foy at St Leonard's School in Durham (Image: Northern Echo) Durham City MP Mary Kelly Foy said she would be urging the Labour Government to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

She said: “I’m devastated to learn that OFQUAL does not feel it would be “fair” for the pupils of St Leonard’s to have special dispensation applied to their impending exam results.

“Pupils have been at an unfair disadvantage through no fault of their own.

“Where is the fairness? From where I’m standing, there is none.”