High levels of persistent absence and mental ill health have undermined pupils’ GCSE results to be published later this week, headteachers have said, as education experts warn of 300,000 fewer top grades being awarded in England this year.
School leaders who spoke to the Guardian said they experienced unprecedented numbers of pupils failing to turn up or walking out in the middle of exams.
The government in England has already warned that GCSE results released on Thursday will fall significantly this year, as part of its plan to bring grades down abruptly to pre-pandemic levels after three years of generous grading. But headteachers warned schools had been struggling with abnormal levels of anxiety as well as the aftermath of Covid and the effects of the cost of living crisis hitting disadvantaged families in particular.
Evelyn Forde, the headteacher of Copthall school for girls in Mill Hill, north London, said: “This is not a normal year. I know we are all trying to get back to normal, but there are things like the mental health crisis which mean it isn’t normal.
“We had more students absent from exams than we’ve ever had before. We had more students walk out of an exam than we’ve ever had before. I think that’s to do with the whole stress and anxiety they are facing.
“School leaders have tried as much as we can to prepare them, but for some of them, mentally and emotionally, they just found it too much.”
Earlier this year the Guardian reported that one in 10 pupils taking GCSEs in year 11 were absent from school in England each day, an increase of 70% since before the Covid pandemic.
