Otley school sorry after exam topic not taught to pupils

The school, which is a state-funded academy, is rated "good" by Oftsed

A school has apologised after students sat a GCSE exam without being taught one of the topics they were tested on.

Pupils at Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley, West Yorkshire, realised the error while taking the religious studies exam on Monday.

Parent Gary McNeil said: "It's beyond belief that a major mistake like this has happened."

The school said it had applied to the exam board Edexcel for special consideration of students' marks.

Despite speculation from parents on a Facebook group, the school confirmed pupils had been taught the correct syllabus.

Gary McNeil said parents would like more information about how the error happened

Mr McNeil, whose son sat the exam, said: "I know several students, some of them are perturbed but thankfully my son is fairly resilient.

"I'm staggered there's not checks and balances in place to prevent this from happening."

In a letter sent to parents, head teacher Janet Sheriff said the school had begun an investigation into what had happened and apologised for any distress caused.

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Ms Sheriff said only the exam board had the "power to decide if the special consideration is significant enough to alter the final grade of students".

She said the outcome of the request would only be known to the school when the results were received in August.

Ms Sheriff said: "If your son/daughter's RS result is not in line with expectations, and there is a risk that this may affect their next steps in learning or employment, we will provide a letter of support to explain the issue with the RS exam and how this may have affected their result.

"The investigation into the matter is ongoing and the result of this will be used to minimise the risk of this situation happening again."

According to the exam board's website, "special consideration" is a post-exam adjustment that compensates candidates who were disadvantaged at the time of the examination.