CHANGES to exams that could affect millions of school pupils sitting GCSEs and A Levels this year have just been announced.

Pupils taking the exams this summer will now have their grades awarded by a combination of teacher assessment, class rank and the past performance of their schools.

Ofqual, the exam regulator in England announced the assessment methods this afternoon, after the government cancelled summer exams as a result of the Coronavirus crisis and school closures that are likely to remain in place for the remainder of this academic year.

Importantly, the assessment will be kept confidential and will not be shared with individual students, Ofqual said.

Under the system examination boards will ask schools to recommend a grade for each pupil in each subject, and ask the schools to 'rank order' each candidate within each grade.

Each candidate’s final grade will then be assigned using a model to be developed by Ofqual, which will take into account the prior attainment of the year group of students at each school and college, and the results of the school or college in recent years.

The process will also factor in expected national outcomes across all pupils in England.

Ofqual said examination centres - mainly, schools - will be asked to provide 'a fair, reasonable and carefully considered judgment of the most likely grade a student would have achieved if they had sat their exams this summer'.

Similar measures are expected to be announced in Wales over the coming days.