Corby academy issues apology after students miss exam due to 'administrative error'

Students at a Corby school due to sit a Business A-level have been told they couldn’t take the exam due to an ‘administrative error’.

In an exam timetable prepared by staff, sixth-formers at Corby Business Academy were mistakenly informed the exam was in the afternoon.

Pupils turned up after lunch, as indicated on the timetable given to the students and parents, only to be told that the school made a mistake and the exam should have been that morning.

One parent at the academy said: “As the paper finished at 11am, there was a chance the paper and questions could now be on social media, so they could not sit the exam in the afternoon, so it is completely void. The students have studied and prepared so hard for this, and it's all in vain.

“I can't fathom how it went through so many channels within the school system without anyone noticing the error."

Students affected by the blunder have been left feeling ‘scared’ and ‘sick’.

One said: “I can't believe they have done this. All of our studying has gone to waste. None of the other current options they have mentioned are going to give us the grades we have worked so hard to get."

Another said: "I am so scared that I won't get in to my first choice uni. I don't know what to do. I can't stop feeling so sick."

Principal of Corby Business Academy Simon Underwood has issued an apology to students.

He said: “We are deeply disappointed that an administrative error has prevented students from completing their A Level Business paper today (Tuesday, May 23), and we apologise profusely to all students and parents involved.

“We have already spoken to the exam board and will be following their protocols and guidance to ensure that the students are not adversely affected. We expect to confirm the alternative arrangements in the next few days.”

The parent said: “All the potential options they mentioned now can harm the students final result, and obviously then their university places.

"One option was just to make Papers 2 and 3 count for 50 per cent each, instead of the 33 per cent for each of the three papers.

"Another option is to just give the students the national average score for paper one - which is not fair if they were predicted an A and the national average is a C. Another solution they considered is for them to do a ‘ghost paper’ which not necessarily what they have revised.”

Corby Business Academy is part of the Brooke Weston Academy Trust.