DfE abandons “end of July” for exam results, reverts to original August dates for A-levels and GCSEs

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has today confirmed that pupils will receive A-level results on August 13th, and GCSE results on August 20th, going back on an earlier statement that the intention was for students to receive their grades “before the end of July”.

As it now stands, the dates student will receive their grades are those which were in place before GCSEs and A-levels were cancelled for 2020. Back in March, when the exams were cancelled, the government had stated that students would receive their grades sometime before the end of July, raising concerns among practitioners that the proposed replacement system would not be able to deliver grades in the timescale.

It now appears that saner council has prevailed, with the switch to the original dates being broadly welcomed.