An education expert says the government should adopt the predicted assessed grades system for pupils who were due to take exams this year and not use the controversial algorithm system which was scrapped last year.

The government announced earlier this week schools would close and GCSE and A Level exams would be cancelled because of the latest national lockdown and the disruption pupils have faced because of the pandemic.

However, the government has yet to give guidance to teachers about how pupils will be graded for their exams, but solicitor, Graham Jones who specialises in education law at Maidstone-based firm, Whitehead Monckton, says it would be a disaster for pupils if the algorithm system was introduced again.

He also says we should trust the teachers who know what their pupil's grades should be.

Mr Jones said: "I would anticipate that they will do it on what the final outcome basis was last time, ie: predicted grades which will then be moderated.

"I don't think we will go back to an algorithm system where they were trying to work out what would happen taking into account the ability of the school, the size of the school, that was just a disaster.

"You have to trust the teachers that are teaching the pupils they know what grades they should get they are not going to exaggerate them and then those assessments are going to be moderated anyway, so that is a system that needs to be put in place but importantly the government need to clarify that system very quickly.

"So if by the the end of this month or the beginning of February the government has to have said this is how the assessment and moderation is going to work, then there is plenty of time before results come out for them to get it right and not to have the mess we had last year."

Mr Jones also says he was disappointed it took the government so long to make the decision to close schools which now leave parents trying to sort out childcare and home schooling.

He added: "I was disappointed it took the government so long to make that decision, but of course they were trying as far as possible not to close the schools and you can understand why that is the case.

"The problem was the term was getting closer and closer they were getting mixed messages from the government, they were getting mixed messages from the schools, you had some areas were local authorities were saying we are not letting children go back and then the government saying of you don't well take you to court over it.

"So I think we have to accept this is a situation we have never been in before and hopefully will never be in again, and therefore decisions are difficult to make and are going to lead to confusion.

"I think we must now say the government have made the right decision, however what is left is the situation where parents hadn't prepared for this.

"There are issues of childcare for younger children and what about parents who need to work and so what we have now is an unparalleled mess which parents now have to try sort out and speaking to the schools when necessary."

He also says pupils should work hard over the next couple of months because they will constantly be being assessed by their teachers on the work they do.

He added: "Our society is based on taking exams to get qualifications there has been lots of talk about continued assessment and in some areas you do have continued assessment rather than exams.

'So you've got to work hard constantly to make sure that assessment can be made correctly...'

"I think what parents need to get their children in the mindset of is that you are going to be assessed, this is not just going to be one day when you take an exam and you either pass or fail, you are going to be assessed on everything you do over the next six months.

"So you've got to work hard constantly to make sure that assessment can be made correctly."

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