At first glance it looked like a traditional GCSE results day. Desks piled with neatly stacked results envelopes, colleges on hand to give advice and lots of nervous tension.
As scores of pupils filed in to the hall at Mary Immaculate RC High in Wenvoe there were happy faces, tears and shouts of joy as students opened envelopes containing their all-important grades.
“I’m really pleased. I thought I would do worse but I worked hard and I got four A*s, four As and three Cs,” said Lord Isay, 16, as he gathered around his friends to share results.
But this year’s exam results days in Wales and the process by which grades have been reached are very different once again, thanks to Covid.
Pupils are being handed their grades, assessed by teachers, two months early. This is to allow time for any appeals as part of a process to avoid the recriminations of last year when a “mutant algorithm” downgraded thousands of results in Wales.
There will still be confirmed GCSE and A level results days in August although schools, colleges, exam board WJEC and exam regulator
