A mock A-Level exam was cancelled by a grammar school after one of its students leaked mark sheets and papers.
Bourne Grammar School, Lincolnshire, said that they immediately began an investigation after being made aware by staff.
According to The Stamford Mercury the school claimed that documents were stolen for mathematics, biology, English and other maths. However, they maintained their innocence about any other subject.
Alistair Anderson wrote to parents that certain students had taken mocks in the subjects, and would therefore have to sit again for exams at a later date.
A letter stated: “It was with immense sadness that I could confirm that question papers, mark schemes, and other documents, that were stored in a safe, password protected folder on school’s staff network were illegally obtained by a student.
Bourne Grammar School (pictured) was forced to cancel its mock A Level exams due to leakage by a student.
“The mark sheets and question papers were then shared.”
Former head of the civil services Sir Mark Sedwill and Neil Mallender, England’s cricketer, admitted that the school did not know how many students had access to leaked papers prior to sitting exams.
Anderson stated that he had acted quickly and identified the papers seen. He also said, “We have rewritten the papers and are now in the process of scheduling the examinations affected.”
Some pupils will need to repeat an exam that they have already passed.
‘In the current context of covid, we know that teacher assessed grades are relevant to all assessment data. It is therefore vital that we confidently inform JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications), that any data that may be used is accurate and untainted. Resits like these are unavoidable.
“To deal with this situation any other way would be to open ourselves up for justified criticism. Therefore, we took the right action quickly and have done so.
Some students might have to repeat exams that they took before the leak was revealed.
School officials said that the incident hadn’t been reported to police. They also stated that the school is investigating how the student gained access to the password protected network.
MailOnline was informed by Alistair Anderson as Headteacher. Anderson stated in a statement that an incident had occurred with respect to the mock examinations for year 13.
“We were alerted that a student had accessed our academic network. Further investigation revealed mock exam papers were found on the network for three subjects.
“We have quickly acted and identified which papers we saw. These papers have been rewritten and we are currently rescheduling affected exams.
“This means that some students will have to take a new examination after the previous one was passed.
We have taken corrective action and done it fast. Although I know this situation isn’t ideal for students having to take resits now, the school will offer them all support and guidance, confident in our ability to respond to their academic needs.
Bourne Grammar School will not accept the student who was identified as having broken network security protocols. We will also be reviewing the security protocols for our network.
The announcement comes after Nadhim Zhawi (education secretary) insists that A-Level and GCSE exams will continue this summer, but stated that teacher grades will be included in the results.
After the 2021 cancellation, Mr Zahawi stated that students would take exam papers.
He said that a return to pre-Covid grading systems was not possible, but that he acknowledged the fact that students who have taken their GCSEs and A-Levels were deprived of their education.
While he said more information about the summer exam schedule would be available next month, he insisted that booster jabs would permit the examinations to be taken in person.
After Mr Zahawi’s predecessor Gavin Williamson discontinued in-person exams, students were forced to use teacher-assessed grades last year. This led to an argument over grade inflation.
Teacher-graded exams led to accusations that fee-paying institutions were gaming the A-level system that handed teachers the power to grade their pupils with barely any moderation.
It was revealed last summer that 70.1 per cent of teenagers at fee-paying schools received an A or A* in a subject in 2021 – compared to around 35 per cent in council-run comprehensives.