Charterhouse 'cheat' quits

Fees at Charterhouse are about £17,500 a year

An English teacher at the prestigious Charterhouse public school has resigned after being accused of cheating to help pupils in their GCSEs.

Andrew Wilson is alleged to have made up marks for pupils who did not submit all the course work needed for their English GCSEs.

It is understood eight pupils did not do all the course work required and that Mr Wilson then filled in their mark sheets with grades based on their previous performance.

The teacher, who is aged 55, had been at the school for 27 years.

Charterhouse, in Godalming, Surrey, charges annual fees of about £17,500.

Grades unaffected

The headmaster, Reverend John Witheridge, said: "Charterhouse has discovered that one of its teachers has allowed eight incomplete English GCSE coursework folders to go forward while submitting marks to the board as though the coursework folders were complete.

"On discovering this the school immediately informed the relevant examination board.

"The teacher involved has left the school with immediate effect."

Charterhouse says it is working with the Welsh exam board, WJEC, to make sure the exam grades of the pupils concerned are not affected.

Integrity

Coursework makes up about 20% of the marks in the GCSE English exams set by WJEC.

The work is marked by teachers who submit a list of grades to the exam board.

The exam board then checks about a fifth of the work.

The exam board, WJEC, says the system depends on close co-operation between the exam board and schools and on the professionalism and integrity of teachers.

Wyn Roberts, the chief executive of WJEC, confirmed the eight pupils involved would not be penalised.

"We're allowing the school some extra time to complete the pieces of work and can give extra weighting to the exams," he said.

"If the candidates have suffered some trauma we will be taking that into account before awarding the final grades."

Concerns have been raised about examined coursework before.

Critics complain it is open to abuse, because it is very easy for pupils to receive help from teachers or parents.