Angry and confused’ students protest for second day after A-levels downgraded

Hundreds of students gathered in central London today to protest the ‘fiasco’ which saw almost 40% of A Level results being downgraded in England.

Many held signs reading ‘trust our teachers’ as they chanted ‘f*ck Gavin Williamson’ and ‘f*ck Eton’ in Parliament Square.

One of the organisers, Ted Mellow, 18, from Wood Green in north London, said: ‘Everywhere you look, people are either angry or confused and, quite frankly, that’s the Government’s fault.

‘We’re not fighting so that everyone gets A*s and As because we know that’s unrealistic, we’re fighting so that people get the grades they deserve.’

He added: ‘The Government needs to be held accountable for their lack of responsibility.

‘It just seems like they’re not confident in their systems and if they’re not confident, why should I be confident?’

Around 280,000 pupils saw their predicted marks downgraded. In total, 36% of entries were given grades below that predicted by teachers, and 3% were down two grades.

Labour has called the situation a ‘fiasco’ and urged ministers to allow pupils the marks they were given by teachers.

Olivia Styles, 18, from Basingstoke, burned her results in front of a crowd to cheers from protesters.

She said that she was lucky her university plans had not been impacted by her grades being reduced as she had an unconditional offer.

However she was angry that her grades had been lowered from a predicted BBC to BCD.

She said: ‘I just think it is bulls**t, I just don’t want those grades to define me.

‘By burning them it’s sort of saying I don’t accept these results, these are not what I wanted, these are not what I deserved.

‘I wanted to burn them to say I want new results. I want the results I’ve worked hard for over the past two years. I don’t want this piece of paper to define me as a person.’

Today saw the second day of protests in London from pupils angry with their results.

Dozens of students sat down on the floor at the front door of the Department of Education as hundreds filled the street.

Maya Szollosy, 18, from London, said: ‘We’re voting age now, most of us, and we’re young.

‘We’re going to remember this for many years until the general election and I don’t think many students are going to vote for the Conservative Party after what they did to us.’

Three vans of police were at the protest, with three uniformed officers in dark blue face masks at the doors of the Department for Education.

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