Opportunist heads trying to boost the school ratings and popularity by overegging their results? Surely not?

It's a tough one. No doubt there are some kids who work hard throughout the year and will see good results due to their ddiligent approach. Others will coast along and then hope to cram at the end for exams, and so won't have had the opportunity to hike their grade at the end, and so will be disadvantaged due to their strategy this year (this was rather my approach). But I'm sure teachers recognise these pupils and will reflect that in assessments, hopefully?

I heard an (Asian accentually) student putting the case for crammers a few days ago quite eloquently and I recognised a "like mind". Until, that is, he went on to suggest it was thus unfair on the ethnic minorities and the underprivileged: as if these groups were the only crammers. Credibility left the room by the back door sadly

When all is said and done, this year's A level results will always carry an asterisk and have to be viewed as "potentially flawed" but if the system means some kids miss out on places in higher education that has to be managed sympathetically somehow by flexibility of the university admissions process. I believe applications for university are down at the moment so reassessment of admission requirements - maybe some sort of interview (zoom) based clearing process - might work to level out iniquities?

There will of course also be some whose assessed grade will be too high and the students will flounder and fail at the next level as they are "found out", but at least they had the opportunity and just 15k debt 🤔.

End of the day, it is what it is. No one's fault. Teachers are best positioned to evaluate students ability to move on to the next level. What other choice is there?

There is clearly going to be a question mark about the assessed grade as a ticket to move to the next level, but once (and if) that is overcome and a subsequent qualification overlayed, so long as potential empoyers note the covid influence on results at interview, it shouldn't harm job prospects.

If there are any jobs, that is