Moment vet hopeful confronts schools minister Nick Gibb for ‘ruining her life’ over A Level grades

Nina Bunting Mitcham said she was predicted to achieve ABB but was awarded DDD
Stephanie Cockroft15 August 2020

This is the moment an A-level student who missed out on a top veterinary school after being handed three D grades confronted the schools minister over the exams fiasco, telling him: "You've ruined my life."

Nina Bunting Mitcham, from Peterborough, who said she was predicted to achieve ABB and scored As and Bs in her mock exams, told Nick Gibb she was distraught after failing to meet her offer from the Royal Veterinary College.

Mr Gibb promised a “robust” and “swift” appeal system which should see challenged grades addressed by September 7 at the latest, telling her: “It won’t ruin your life, it will be sorted I can assure you.”

During BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? Nina, who went to New College Stamford, said: “I have no idea how this has happened. It’s got to be a mistake, I have never been a D-grade student.

“I feel my life has been completely ruined, I can’t get into any universities with such grades or progress further in my life.

“You have ruined my life.”

Minister for Schools Nick Gibb 
PA Archive/PA Images

Mr Gibb said it was “rare” for students to be downgraded three grades from their predicted grades.

He said: “I do feel for you. This should not have happened to you. We don’t want you to have to go through this.

“We have introduced very robust appeals systems that the schools will trigger for students like Nina.

“Those appeals will happen very swiftly.

“The universities have said they will hold offers open until September 7 and we’re working through that now to make sure those appeals happen very quickly.”

Mr Gibb added pupils can also sit exams in the autumn and “many universities are holding places open to start in January”.

A Level Results 2020 - In pictures

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It came as Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said schools in England will be able to appeal against A-level and GCSE grades free of charge.

He said it would be a “shocking injustice” if cost stopped appeals being made on behalf of pupils with a “strong and legitimate” case.

Appeals against grades vary between exam boards, with charges of up to £150 for an independent review, and costs are refunded if the appeal is upheld.

There were 3,205 appeals against grades granted for GCSEs, AS and A-levels for exams sat in summer 2019, equivalent to 0.05 per cent of all entries, and 16 per cent – of 516 grades – were changed, according to figures from Ofqual.

Protesters gathered outside Downing Street on Friday chanting for Mr Williamson to be sacked, a call echoed by some opposition MPs.

And the Royal Statistical Society has written to the Office of Statistics Regulation to ask for a review into whether “the models and processes adopted by the qualification regulators did in fact achieve quality and trustworthiness”.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted he has confidence in Mr Williamson and described the system as “robust”.

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