Year 11 Teacher Takes GCSE Exam Along With Pupils And Gets A 'C' Grade

A secondary school teacher, who took GCSE exams in solidarity with his pupils, opened his results live on TV and discovered he had been awarded a 'C' grade.

Teens across the country have also been getting their results today, in a new marking system where papers are rated one to nine, rather than A* to G. Mr Riley, Head of Year 11 at Furness Academy in Cumbria, read his results out to the nation on Good Morning Britain.

As the school teacher opened the envelope on the ITV breakfast time show, he nervously said: "Drumroll, yeah? No pressure".

A smile spread quickly across his face, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he declared: "I got a grade 5." A grade 5 is the equivalent of a grade 'C' under the old system that most people will have experienced.

While Mr Riley's mark might not have been the highest possible, he would still be able to get into college or sixth form, and a 5 is deemed as a 'strong pass'.

The new grading system has been heavily scrutinised by parents, pupils and teachers, as the system was brought in to make GCSEs harder than ever before by the government.

But others have argued that the supposedly harder exams bring the UK's education system up to scratch with others around the world.

Grade 9 represents the highest mark - previously 'A*' - and grade 1 represents the lowest passing mark - previously 'G'. A grade of 'U' will still be used when a GCSE exam is failed completely.

The results are in, and only 732 children across the country have managed to get all 9s. However the average number of kids getting a pass grade rose by half a per cent to 66.9 per cent.

This new system includes more final exams and much less coursework, meaning some students have struggled with the amount of revision needed to get the grade that they want.