I'm involved with the Social Mobility Foundation, who help bright teenagers from deprived backgrounds get to top unis. They're now up against an exam scoring system that judges pupils by their school's past performance. I spoke to two of them yesterday...

One was offered a place to study medicine at Oxford: offer was A*AA. No problem for her: she was predicted (and on track for) 3xA*. But the A-Level algorithm gave her ABBB. No explanation. Result: Oxford offer withdrawn. She has no mocks to fall back on.

The other had university interviews in January, the same week as her mocks. She rightly focused on the (tough) interviews (to study medicine) knowing she was still on course for A*s in A-Levels. Then, exams were cancelled. She has no idea what to do now.

It's a betrayal of basic British values: the right to be judged on ability, not background. These students are the minority (outliers always are). In my Telegraph column, I argue for a well-resourced appeals process to give such cases proper consideration. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/13/a-level-fiasco-just-startof-lockdowns-betrayal-young/