AN examining body has agreed to review a "substantial" number of GCSE exams from a Bradford school following what the principal has described as a "major discrepancy" in results.

Four papers by GCSE English pupils at Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College have already been re-marked, raising pupil's grades from a D to a C, and principal Jen McIntosh says many more are in the process of being investigated.

The papers were marked by exam board WJEC, and when pupils picked up their results last month many were surprised to find their grades much lower than they had been predicted. A letter sent to parents on results day pointed out an apparent marking error. It highlighted that while 52 per cent of pupils gained an A* to C grade in the English reading exam, only one per cent of the same students were awarded the same grade for the writing exam, which they sat immediately after.

Many pupils got a U, the lowest rating, for the writing exam, dragging their average down.

As well as affecting the pupils, the results could be damaging to the school - the number of A* - C grades in English is a major factor in how the government ranks schools in performance tables.

HEAD OF BRADFORD SCHOOL CALLS FOR GCSE RE-MARKING AFTER 'MAJOR DISCREPANCY' IN ENGLISH RESULTS 

Mrs McIntosh said yesterday: "We identified what looks to be a major discrepancy in our GCSE English results. We have challenged the results and we are working closely with the exam board WJEC.

"So far four students have had their papers re-marked and their grades have risen from D to C. A substantial number of others are currently being reviewed by the exam board.

"We look forward to the matter being resolved after the school achieved other pleasing results in this year's GCSEs.

"An overall improvement in science saw over half our chemistry entrants achieve at least an A grade; in Maths our students achieved our best ever results with 60 per cent getting an A* to C - up 14 per cent in three years - while we saw especially strong performances in various other subjects including English Literature, Statistics, French, Urdu and vocational subjects like health and social care, business and BTEC Sport."

A spokesman for the examining body said: “WJEC, along with all other awarding bodies, follow the Joint Council for Qualifications’ post-results procedures’ – we are unable to comment on individual cases.”