Councils join alliance in pre-action letter over GCSE grade boundaries row

Thirty-six local authorities are part of an alliance threatening legal action over this summer’s changes to GCSE English grade boundaries.

The councils – which include 11 London boroughs and major authorities such as Leeds, Manchester and Bradford – have joined 180 pupils, 117 schools and seven professional bodies in calling for results to be regraded in line with those in January.

A pre-action letter has been sent to exam regulator Ofqual and exam bodies AQA and Edexcel.

The letter said: “It is inconceivable that two cohorts of students enrolled for the same course in the same academic year, who have undertaken the same work and invested the same effort, and who will be competing in future for the same opportunities, should be subjected to such radically different standards of assessment and award.”

The alliance also claimed that schools and students relied on the published January grade boundaries in making their preparations for the June exam.

They argued that the lack of a specific, focused warning of a significant grade boundary change – beyond the routine – meant they were denied the opportunity to change their preparation.

The letter added that there had been a breach of the “cardinal principle of good administration that all persons who are in a similar position should be treated similarly". It also said there had been a breach of legitimate expectations.

Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: “The statistics are opaque but the moral issue is simple: a group of young people have been made to pay a devastating price for the mistakes of others. This must be rectified swiftly."

Ofqual, AQA and Edexcel will have seven days in which to respond.

Ofqual has previously resisted regrading, claiming after holding a review that the problem was that the January exams were marked too generously.