SCORES of students across Suffolk are to have their English papers remarked after head teachers at a number of schools voiced concerns about lower than expected GCSE results.

Will Clarke

SCORES of students across Suffolk are to have their English papers remarked after head teachers at a number of schools voiced concerns about lower than expected GCSE results.

There some unexpectedly disappointing results in the subject, which counts as one of the core GCSE papers, when grades were revealed last week.

Suffolk County Council said that “a number of schools” were calling for remarks and said the results announced on Thursday were “very provisional”.

Two schools in west Suffolk have confirmed they are among those set to demand remarking of their students' English papers.

At Sudbury Upper School, as many as 40 students now face a long wait into next year before learning their true grades in the higher English paper.

At King Edward VI Upper School in Bury St Edmunds 20 students will be in a similar position.

Geoff Barton, headteacher at King Edwards, said: “Marking seems to be more erratic this year and we are going to ask for remarks in English.

“Our results in the English language paper are 10% down on last year and we can't understand why.

“I think there will probably be 20 students, not just in English language, with which we are going to ask for a remark.”

David Forrest, headteacher at Sudbury Upper, said their results in the language paper were 12% down.

“We are very confident there is something amiss,” he said. “There are a whole set of indicators which show there it is wrong.

“It is common for some remarking but it is unusual to have such a big problem in a core subject.”

The poor results for some of Sudbury Upper's brighter pupils scoring Ds in the paper had dragged the school's entire A* - C grade in five or more subjects down to 55%.

Seventy-two per cent of King Edwards pupils received five or more A*-C grades.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk County Council said the total number of remarks were not significantly above the average but the full figures would not be known until October - the deadline for submissions. The final results will then be published in January.

Rosalind Turner, the county council's director for children and young people congratulated pupils, parents, guardians and staff on their hard work but added: “Results are still very provisional with a number of schools requesting re-marks which will have an effect on overall figures.

“Provisionally 65% of pupils attained five or more A*-C grades which is a 3% increase on last year and more than the national increase of 2.4%.”