Despite another year of disruption, students across Tameside have earned academic success to progress on their chosen career path.

The coronavirus pandemic means no national exams for the second year running, which students will have been working towards throughout their secondary school lives. Instead students have received teacher assessed grades moderated and awarded by exam boards. These will be recognised by colleges and higher education institutions and future employers.

While they’ve missed out on traditional GCSE celebrations, many students have earned remarkable successes to achieve their goals and progress onto sixth form, college, apprenticeships, training or work.

To ascertain the grades, teachers assess the standard at which a student is performing. Teachers’ judgements are based on a range of evidence gathered throughout the course. This might include work already completed, mock exam results, homework or in-class tests from past papers. These grades are moderated by the Exam Board which required schools to provide evidence used to determine the grades for each subject.

With no exams taking place this year, pupils’ GCSE outcomes aren’t being published nationally so the context of grades received can’t be ascertained or compared with previous years’ results.

Support is in place to help students get on the right post-16 pathways, including the right college course or training option. It’s anticipated that for the vast majority of students the process will be straightforward.

Cllr Leanne Feeley, Tameside Council Executive Member for Lifelong Learning, said: “It’s been another challenging year for schools, students and their families, with exams cancelled again because of Covid-19 and children having to study at home for periods, on top of the stress and uncertainty caused by the pandemic and lockdown.

“So, I’m delighted that so many of our students have achieved places on the courses that are right for them, based on the hard work they’ve put in over the academic years, to progress on their career paths.

“While this is the second year running that students have been denied the opportunity to celebrate their GCSEs on a traditional results day, I hope they’re proud of, and take time to recognise, their accomplishments in such difficult circumstances and I wish them well in achieving their goals.”

Students unhappy with their grades will have the opportunity to appeal them.

Positive Steps Careers Service are available to provide independent career advice by calling 0800 484 0407 / 0161 621 9292 or emailing tamesidecareers@positive-steps.org.uk.

Support is also available for anyone worried about their exam results from Kooth, who offer free online support at www.kooth.com and SHOUT, who provide a free confidential text chat anytime, anywhere, whatever the difficulty, just text 85258.

Read more from the Tameside Reporter

Click here for more of the latest news

Click here to read the latest edition of the paper online

Click here to find out where you can pick up a copy of the paper