A CHIPPENHAM student whose grades were badly affected by the A level result fiasco is still waiting to find out if she will be able to take up her university place.

The 18-year-old Hardenhuish student found out on Thursday that she had received grades of B, C and E in science subjects instead of the A, B, C predicted by teachers.

This week her mother hit out at the ‘utter shambles’ of the system which led to a major u-turn by the Government on Monday which scrapped the algorithm results and re-instated teacher predictions.

Around 40 per cent of A level results across the country were downgraded by exam regulator Ofqual which used a formula based on schools’ prior grades.

The Chippenham mother said she was fearful her daughter would be caught up in the downgrading but they had been hoping for the best.

She said: “When she got the grades it was very upsetting and a shock but it didn’t come to a complete surprise to me as I was fearing something like this was going to happen and I had already written to Chippenham MP Michelle Donelan about it.

“We are now just having to wait and see what will happen. We are confident that if she had got the teacher predicted grades on Thursday she would have got her place at Nottingham University.”

“My daughter was given centre assessed grades which fairly reflected her academic performance over the last seven years. All were downgraded, two by one grade and one by two grades based on the performance of students in 2019. With no reflection on her individual performance.”

She praised Hardenhuish School for its support.

Sheldon head Neil Spurdell spoke out about the flawed marking system even though many of his students achieved excellent grades.

Speaking before the Government’s u-turn he said: “We have a lot to digest following very late decisions made by the government and there are definitely some students who will be incredibly frustrated and disappointed with their outcomes.

“For some, where we believe there have been genuine mistakes made in Ofqual’s standardisation process.”

Ian Tucker principal of St John’s, Marlborough thanked both Devizes MP Danny Kruger and North Wiltshire MP James Gray for their support in helping to get the right grades for pupils.

Devizes MP Danny Kruger said: “The Government has done the right thing in listening to young people and teachers.”

He was hopeful tomorrow’s GCSE results, which will based on school assessments, will go smoothly. The Joint Council for Qualifications confirmed that pupils would received results tomorrow.