ONE of the region's top schools has sent hundreds of exam papers back to examiners after it was discovered they had been marked incorrectly.

Durham Johnston School returned 230 Key Stage Three English scripts, sat by 14-year-olds, back to the examination board AQA.

Of those, 28 of the paper were increased by at least one grade after they were remarked.

Nationally, 14,000 children had their results on the English paper upgraded last year.

This year, 430 schools - 12 per cent of the country's total - have returned tests for their entire year group, a rise of ten per cent on the previous year.

Durham Johnston's deputy headteacher, Pat Dwyer, said the marking mistakes had caused unnecessary disappointment for pupils, parents and teachers.

She said: "We don't have a lot of confidence in the Key Stage Three examination marking.

"We keep a very close eye on it, as last year we found similar errors. We use the marks from Key Stage Three to set targets for GCSE, and the Government also uses them as a reference measure of a school's performance, so they are important. It is important to get it right."

A spokesman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which has responsibility for the tests, said: "Most review requests relate to Key Stage Three English because they are they most difficult papers to mark.

"We aim at as careful a standardisation of marking as possible. It is well known that the absolutely consistent marking of language work is difficult to achieve because of the wide range of ways children can express themselves."