STUDENTS in St Helens worried about their results following the cancellation of GCSE, AS and A-Level exams have been reassured they will receive “accurate assessments” of their final grades.

On Thursday, the exam watchdog Ofqual published a blog and two short films on how this summer’s GCSE, AS and A level grades will be awarded.

Schools and colleges are being asked to make a judgement about the grade each student was most likely to have achieved, if they had taken their exams.

To do this, they will take account of all available evidence including school and college records, mock exams, and non-exam assessments (NEA).

Teachers will also be asked to rank each student relative to others for who they also judge would have got the same grade.

“Those judgements should be holistic, based on the range of evidence that schools and colleges have,” Ofqual said in the blog post.

“So students shouldn’t worry about one disappointing mock exam result, if their NEA work wasn’t finished or they haven’t been able to complete to their usual standard – or at all – any work set after schools and colleges closed.

“Schools and colleges should take all the evidence into account and come to a balanced view.”

The exam regulator said the approach it has set out is the “fairest in the circumstances.”

It added that there are still some details to be agreed.

St Helens Council’s Sue Murphy, cabinet member for developing young people, said: “There are many thousands of families across St Helens borough that will be understandably worried about their children’s school and college grades since the unavoidable cancellation of exams, and of course the pupils and students who have worked incredibly hard for themselves and for their futures.

“Following the recent guidance from Ofqual our schools and colleges will ensure that young people who were ready to sit exams will be given an accurate assessment of their expected grades in place of those exams where necessary in the coming months, using their completed classwork, coursework, mock tests and other internal assessments.

“Teachers and school staff have gone above and beyond in recent weeks to maintain school provision for the children of key workers, proving how resilient and dedicated they are to our young people.”

To read Ofqual’s blog post in full, click here.