Kenilworth father and daughter speak of A-levels 'fiasco'

A father and daughter from Kenilworth have spoken out about the A-levels fiasco which led to many students losing and regaining university places.

Last week A-level students received their results, of which many were left disappointed and heartbroken after being downgraded due to an algorithm.

After days of complaints and protests across the UK the grades were changed back to the predicted ones - creating more mess for students and universities.

Sophie Grant, who attended King's High School in Warwick, was one of the many affected by the changes.

The 18-year-old was predicted three As and last week she received BCC. Before the grades were announced Sophie had an offer from Southampton University to study Law.

Sophie said: "I was absolutely gutted. At first I thought it was the teachers' fault as we weren't advised how the system would work.

"I felt really angry as I knew that had I sat the exams I would not be looking at these grades as a result.

"It was the feeling of powerlessness that was so frustrating, who was going to listen to me?

"My whole future just disintegrated before my eyes and at the time there seemed to be no hope whatsoever.

"All my offers were ripped away from me and to rub salt into the wound, the UCAS system went down and I couldn't get my clearing number so was unable to even start to sort out this mess for an hour."

Simon Grant, Sophie's dad, was appalled at last week's events.

He said: "Frankly I was appalled. Sophie has always worked hard throughout her entire academic life.

"The grades awarded simply bore no relation whatsoever to the grades I knew she was capable of.

"For me the greatest frustration was the clear injustice of this process and the resultant outcomes.

"The process seemed to completely ignore the individual in favour of ensuring the schools overall results were in line with the previous four years."

Simon added: "Anticipating this debacle to a certain extent, we were armed and ready on Thursday morning for clearing and Sophie had produced a hierarchical list of possible other university options.

"After waiting an hour for the UCAS system to reboot, she was on the phone after recovering from the initial shock and disappointment, taking positive action to address the situation and secure another university place elsewhere."

On Monday it was announced that students' grades would be changed back to the predicted grades and Sophie's offer from the University of Southampton was reinstated.

Simon said: "We are both happy the grades were changed however, this does not end the challenges this whole fiasco has presented not only to us but all A-level students aspiring to further their education.

"The dilemma now is, should Sophie stay with the university placed through clearing or go back to Southampton University having now achieved the required grades and seek to hold them to their initial offer.

"This is a long way from over for a great many students and there will undoubtedly be more disappointment to come for the places now lost due to capacity limitations."

"Someone should be held accountable.

"Not out of a sense of being vindictive but to ensure those who believed this was a fair and sensible approach, are never again put in a position to initiate such a poorly thought out and executed process.

"We will now undoubtedly move into the "blame game" phase of this whole mess.

"The Government will blame Ofqual, Ofqual will blame the brief from the Government and both will blame the statisticians.

"I suspect in time, certain individuals will move sideways or be given different roles but true accountability is unlikely, it never is in Government as we have seen all too often."