School struck by GCSE marking error for fourth time in as many years

Beech House School

A Rochdale school has been the victim of a GCSE marking error for the fourth time in as many years.

Beech House school had its English coursework incorrectly marked by the exam board AQA, and if the school had not spotted the error nine pupils would have left without a C grade in English.

School headteacher Kevin Sartain said: "This is the fourth time in four years that we have had marking problems. When we pointed out the error nine out of 15 pupils went from a D grade in English to a C. Getting a C in English is a requirement for a lot of jobs so it could have had a serious affect on their careers if we had not seen the mistake. It is appalling to make such an obvious administration error when it is children's careers we are talking about."

Exam board AQA said that the mistake was down to a 'processing error' and that they rectified the mistake as swiftly as possible and apologised as soon as the school made them aware of the error.

A spokesperson said: "In 2008 AQA processed 2,951,054 GCSE subject entries, the vast majority of them with no problems. Despite AQA's rigorous system of checking and quality control, regrettably, mistakes are made on occasion. Whilst such mistakes are tiny in number in relation to the vast numbers of results we process, we appreciate that this will be of small comfort to the individual candidates who are affected by such mistakes. For this reason AQA will always undertake to address and rectify such mistakes as swiftly as possible. If a centre has an issue with any aspect of the service we offer, we are always more than happy to discuss their concerns with them directly."