Hartlepool education chief praises teenagers on GCSE results day after challenging times

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen Hartlepool’s 2021 cohort of teenagers taking their GCSEs spending much of their Year 10 and Year 11 in lockdown, including long periods working from home for many.

Councillor Jim Lindridge, chairman of the Council’s Children’s Services Committee, praised their resilience and sent warm wishes for their future.

“We send our warmest congratulations to Hartlepool’s students today,” he said.

“They, their families and their schools have worked extremely hard during an exceptionally challenging time and deserve the highest praise.

“We have full confidence that schools have done everything they can to ensure fairness and that the system of assessment – which is quality assured by Ofqual and the exam boards - is robust.

“We wish our students every success in their future studies and careers – we are so proud of them and everything they have achieved.”

Due to the coronavirus situation, there have been changes to how GCSEs have been awarded this year.

Students have not been able to sit nationally-set exams as usual and they have been awarded grades based on an assessment by their teachers using a range of evidence, such as mock exams and student work produced in response to assessment materials provided by the exam board.

The exam boards have reviewed all schools’ and colleges’ quality assurance processes before they submitted grades and have also completed checks of the evidence for a sample of students in a sample of schools and colleges.

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