AN investigation into alleged exam malpractice at an East Lancashire high school is being carried out by examination chiefs.

All Saints' Catholic High School in Rawtenstall was asked by the examination body AQA to gather evidence from students and parents over alleged malpractice during a GCSE fine art exam from March 2019.

The accusations relate to one teacher, who students say failed to prepare them for the exam, and provided them with misleading information in relation to the percentage weight of marks awarded for coursework and exam preparation work, which a mum and daughter said resulted in a large number of the pupils failing the subject.

Logan Murray, 17, sat the 10-hour fine art exam with her classmates over two days, and received a grade three (the equivalent of a D).

Logan’s mum, Jill Murray, said the school refused to acknowledge there had been any issue, and what ensued was a 10-month battle to try and get to the bottom of why so many students failed or received lower grades than originally predicted.

In minutes from one of the initial meetings, headteacher Brian McNally stated: “It is clearly stated to all pupils that the coursework is 60 per cent and 40 per cent exam.

“The teacher said that the importance of prep work for the exam was repeatedly stressed by her and she did say that all prep work was in effect worth 75 per cent of the marks which is where Logan may have got confused.”

Mr McNally also went on to state that students had been given enough time to complete their prep work, and that Logan was given advice throughout the exam prep time but simply left a lot of her preparation to the last minute, including an inadequate planning of her final design.

He also stated that Logan had been told she needed to do more work and that no prep work was to be completed in the 10-hour exam.

He said: “This is the only complaint we have received from any parent regarding outcomes in art."

He added they were satisfied the teacher had not wilfully misinformed anyone, or incorrectly followed a GCSE specification.

In February, Mrs Murray finally took the complaint to AQA, who asked her to provide evidence from other students to support the claim, which she collected in the form of text message screenshots and photos taken during the exam.

She said: “Logan is a good student, and she really needed to pass this exam. She really enjoyed her time at All Saints, and did really well in all of her other GCSEs. She was predicted a grade six but got a three, as was the case with other students.

“I went to AQA because I wanted this investigating properly. We are awaiting the outcome.”

Headteacher Mr McNally was contacted for a statement but refused to comment.

An AQA spokesperson said: “We can’t confirm or discuss malpractice cases.

"But it’s really important that no-one taking our exams has an unfair advantage - so we thoroughly investigate accusations of malpractice and, where necessary, take action to protect the interests of all students who took that exam.”