EDUCATION
Royal
Family: " Prince Harry did not cheat on his exam."The Royal Family has denied allegations by a former teacher that Prince Harry cheated in his art A-level.
The claims were made by one of his former teachers at Eton who is taking the college to an industrial tribunal on Monday claiming unfair dismissal. Sarah Forsyth said a senior master told her to help the prince answer questions which enabled him to achieve a B grade. Clarence House said an investigation by an examination board had concluded there had been no cheating. Ms Forsyth will make her allegations when she appears at the tribunal on Monday. The former teacher claims she was asked to assist Prince Harry to compile his AS-level Art coursework journal.
The marks
from this discipline counted towards his final A-level grade. She is expected
to tell the tribunal she sat beside the royal and told him specific technical
terms to use in notes submitted by pupils to explain the thinking behind their
work. The private school's board has denied the allegations. Teachers sent the
prince's 2002 exam paper to be double-checked anonymously by the exam board,
but no irregularities were discovered. The 20-year-old royal, whose other
A-level pass was a D in geography, needed reasonable grades in order to help
him qualify for Sandhurst military academy, where he will begin his army
career in January. The minimum Sandhurst entrance requirement is two A-levels
and it is understood Prince Harry's military career could be at stake if one
of his passes was shown to have been obtained by cheating. Ms Forsyth is
thought to been turned down for a staff position at the school after three
years on probation, before being offered a £10,000 pay-off. Prince Harry, who
is third in line to the throne, passed his Sandhurst entrance exams in
September.
The Regular Commissions Board four-day test included obstacle courses, medicals and planning exercise.
Test
results still not readyThere is still no end in sight to the chaos that afflicted the English tests for England's 14 year olds this year.
The results achieved by some 600,000 youngsters - due at the end of August - have still not been published. The Department for Education and Skills says release continues to be delayed "until the impact of the extended review process ... is clearer". But a survey of local authority advisers suggests the results will lack credibility even when they do appear. The Times Educational Supplement questioned Key Stage 3 advisers in a third of local education authorities and 70% said they did not think the results would accurately reflect their schools' achievements. Eighty-five per cent said they thought the results would be less reliable than last year's. The results were issued to schools at the very end of the summer term, in some cases too late to be passed on to parents. To get them out at all the usual double-checking process had to be dispensed with. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) apologised for what had happened.
Reviews completed: The National Assessment Agency - the part of the QCA responsible for the tests - said it was confident the results schools had now received were "an accurate reflection of pupils' attainment in the tests". It had completed its reviews of marks - those arising from appeals by schools - and the results were on their way back to schools, a spokeswoman said. There had been about 550 requests for all the marks in a school to be reviewed, so-called group reviews, compared with 605 last year. Figures for appeals on behalf of individual pupils would not be available until January. The QCA has set up an investigation by three of its board members: Mike Beasley, Edward Gould and Sue Kirkham. It said it "recognises that many schools were affected by delays and operational difficulties". Schools and markers are invited to send in their comments by 19 October.