No student should suffer damage to their prospects

Peter Winter

"The school very much regrets the error that was made and the upset caused," a statement from the head teacher, Peter Winter, read.

The error only accounted for 8% of the total mark and the examination board - OCR Examinations - had recognised procedures for dealing with this eventuality, the statement continued.

"Thus, no student should suffer damage to their prospects," the head said.

'Rare'

A spokesman for OCR Examinations confirmed the school had asked for "special considerations".

"We try to make sure children aren't disadvantaged by incidents that happen, regardless of whose fault it is," he said.

The exam board confirmed it would issue the students with a final grade, based on other examination papers sat and predicted results from the school.

"It happens very occasionally - teachers get a vast amount of information from us.

"But it is rare," he stressed.

Business exam blunder

Second and third year students at Leeds University's Business School are re-sitting an exam after they were mistakenly given a past paper.

The university decided to order a re-sit after it was claimed some students had seen copies of the strategic management paper.

"We are very sorry for the inconvenience and stress caused, but we hope our students understand why we believe the original exam has been compromised and that the re-sit is the fairest and most appropriate course of action," the university said in a statement.

The exam counts for approximately 6% of the students' final degree classification.