BOLTON headteachers are appealing to pupils and parents for understanding as arrangements for assessing this year's GCSE and A level results are revealed.

With exams scrapped due to the coronavirus crisis, England's exam regulator Ofqual has instructed teachers to rank students according to how they believe they would perform if the tests had gone ahead.

Teachers, together with school leaders, are expected to do this over the next two months using a mixture of previous test results, a pupil's performance and predicted grades.

But there is no guarantee that a teacher's assessment will match the grade a pupil is finally awarded as the school or college's previous exam statistics will also be taken into account and standardisation used so that, nationally, similar proportions of students receive each grade as previous years.

"I would ask that parents and students remain patient and, speaking on behalf of the other heads in Bolton, we will do as much as we can to support them," said Little Lever school headteacher Dominic Mckeon, who is also an executive board member of Bolton Learning Alliance.

There had been concern that pupils and parents may try and put pressure on teachers to give higher assessments, but Mr Mckeon says those fears have largely been alleviated by Ofqual's decision to insist recommended grades are kept secret.

Pupils will only discover which grade they have received when, nationally, results are announced on the same day in August.

"We have been told that centres must not, under any circumstances, share the centre assessment grade or the rank order of students with anybody," said Mr Mckeon.

"I get that it is going to be a very difficult time for parents and pupils. There is uncertainty about what is going to happen and we have told students that we will give a fair reflection of the work they have done this year. All the schools will do exactly the same."

While not ideal to replace exams with assessment, Mr Mckeon welcomed the way the process will be carried out.

"Obviously, this is unprecedented and no matter what the Government decided to do there were always going to be some difficulties," he said.

"They are trying to be as fair and transparent as they possibly can. It is robust and I think the quality assurance on it will prevent schools from over-inflating grades for students.

"All the headteachers in Bolton will certainly do a professional job of that and expect the teachers to do a professional job."

However, he added that teachers are being put in a "really difficult position" as they will have to rank students in their classes according to how likely they are to achieve a grade.

"I don't know how how children and families are going to feel about that," he said.

"It is going to be difficult when you have two students who you think are exactly the same and will get exactly the same grade and you have to put them in an order. It's going to become a kind of moral dilemma for teachers."

Mr Mckeon also fears pupils who go to schools which are rapidly improving may lose out as previous years' attainments will be factored in.

"It could hinder schools that are on the up and benefit schools that are on the decline," he said.

"It could significantly disadvantage some children who are absolutely flying and where the school as a whole is transforming itself. It is going to be really difficult for some school leaders to take if there is a heavy weighting on that measure."

Other pupils who might be disadvantaged are those who were planning to put in a last minute extra effort to boost their exam grades.

"We know that boys, particularly white, British boys, usually pull it out of the bag in the last few weeks," said Mr Mckeon, who added that, hopefully, teachers' professionalism at spotting those pupils will enable a correct assessment to be made.

The new rules for awarding results this year have also been welcomed at Bolton School, where lessons have continued online for pupils during lockdown.

Girls' division headmistress Sue Hincks: "The key thing we are pleased about is that the grades that we submit are going to be confidential so that there isn't going to be pressure on staff to raise that grade, so that it can be as fair as it needs to be."

Students unhappy with the grades they finally receive will be able to sit the exam in Autumn or next Summer.

For more details about the assessment process you can visit the Ofqual website at www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofqual.