Pupils did not deserve A*s, says private school head

A leading headmaster suggested today that some of his pupils did not deserve the top grades they scored at A-level this year.

Tim Hands, of Magdalen College School in Oxford, said examiners had been "generous" to some students, giving three-quarters of them elite A* grades in English.

He said there was no evidence exam questions were any harder this year, despite promises to make A-levels more stretching for the brightest pupils.

Mr Hands spoke as his school came top of the Standard's A-level private schools table for London and the South-East today. A remarkable 99 per cent of exams taken by boys at the £12,000-a-year school were given A*, A or B grades, almost twice the national average.

Labour introduced the A* in response to complaints by universities that too many pupils were achieving straight As. The new top grade is awarded to sixth-formers who score at least 90 per cent in the final-year exams.

But Mr Hands, whose school will accept girls for the first time in the sixth form only from next month, feared that the A* is not being awarded consistently.

"I am not convinced there is parity between subjects with the A* grade or necessarily between exam boards," he said.

"More than 75 per cent of our students doing English A-level have got an A* grade. I have taught all those A-level boys myself. I think that 75 per cent, which is 10 times more than the national average, is generous."

He said just five per cent of pupils scored A*s in history, despite the fact that the majority also did English.

Mr Hands added: "I don't see great evidence of stretch and challenge in the A-level exams this year. Boys don't report that. Staff don't report a great change in the style of questions."

Today's table, based on an Independent Schools Council poll, shows more than half this year's A-levels in private schools resulted in at least a grade A.