Have you heard the story about the mother who wrote her daughter’s English literature coursework for A-level and was splutteringly indignant when it only scored a B? Or the one about the family who paid a private tutor to help their son build a model for his electronics GCSE? The young tutor, fuelled by HobNobs supplied by dad, stayed up all night finishing the work to make sure it could be handed in on time.

All over the country, families are cheating on a scale, that, applied to any other area of life, might even land them in jail. At the start of 2008, with March’s submission deadlines looming, a new cohort of middle-class mothers and fathers are embarking on their teenagers’ coursework – an essay or project that can be worked on at home even though it can count for up to 60% of the marks on some GCSE courses.

Schools issue booklets emphasising that the work should be written without adult help. The rule of thumb is “don’t put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard)” – but few parents even read the rules, let alone abide by them, so keen are they to guarantee top grades for their offspring.

It’s middle-class deception that is so widespread parents joke publicly about it. At a dinner party recently I was taken aback when two guests laughed about having “several GCSEs” apiece. They meant their children’s – which they had hugely contributed to by “helping” – and which they didn’t at all mind confessing to now that their offspring had amassed a string of passes.

Some parents get involved because of their 16-year-olds’ apparent inability to buckle down to such an extended piece of work. James O’Donnell, for instance, stepped in one week before his son Charlie was due to hand in his photography GCSE coursework, having watched his son spend most weekends hanging out with his mates.

“I just got the camera and went out in Putney and started shooting,” recalls James. “I really got into it.” A highflying executive who’d always enjoyed art, he read up on the coursework criteria and started fulfilling them.

GCSE photography involves using a 35mm camera and creating “three practical assignments supported by research”. While taking pains that his supporting research – a written rationale, sketched range of images and references to other photographers’ work – was not wildly superior to the standard of work Charlie was capable of producing, James tried to ensure that his photos of traffic and pedestrians on Putney streets were up to top GCSE standards.

As indeed they were. The work got an A* and James found his helping hand easy to justify. “I knew Charlie was a very talented artist,” he says. “He just wasn’t up to the deadline.”

So why do schools and ministers turn a blind eye to such deception? The answer can be found partly in the publication, last week, of school league tables based on the most recent GCSE results. It just isn’t in teachers’ interests to report their suspicions that families have colluded over coursework if it dents the school’s overall exam performance.

It’s not in the government’s interests either to scrap coursework, even though there have been many calls for it. According to last week’s tables only 46% of children scored five good GCSEs, including maths and English. That shockingly low figure would fall even lower if coursework was stripped out.

A two-year inquiry, conducted by the exams watchdog – the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority – and prompted by widespread concerns, failed to do away with coursework outright, though it will be dropped from some subjects. From 2009, said a QCA spokesman, more will also have to be done “under controlled conditions” in schools rather than at home. But, he added, “we do want parents to take an interest in their children’s education. It is okay for them to talk to their children about coursework, it is not okay for them to write huge chunks of it”.

He also pointed out that exam boards would be suspicious if coursework and exam marks varied wildly and that candidates can be disqualified for cheating.

And, of course, sometimes it does all go wrong. Nicola Hill, a web designer from Newcastle, unleashed a morality tale of biblical proportions when she volunteered to help with her younger brother’s extended essay for his GCSE in religious studies – 20% of his final mark.

“I began just intending to type it but then I started to correct the spelling and then the grammar,” she remembers. “It was supposed to be an examination of Abra-ham and his dilemma about sacrificing his son but, honestly, it was dreadful, it was as if he was writing about his holidays.

“Before I knew it I was making critical points and adding in arguments. It all backfired horribly because he got a B for it, his best grade, and was so encouraged that he went on to take it at A-level, where he got a U.”

But this is an unusual case. Far more often family teamwork on coursework reaps rich dividends. Who says cheating doesn’t pay?

Additional reporting: Amanda Blinkhorn and Victoria Neumark

All names have been changed

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