HEAD TEACHERS have been accused of bowing to pressure from middle-class parents by flooding the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) with appeals against exam grades.

Some schools have submitted hundreds of appeals in an attempt to have Standard grade and Higher marks overturned.

The appeals system is supposed to be used only where head teachers believe there has been a genuine miscarriage of justice such as when a pupil has been ill or suffered a bereavement.

However, Balwearie High school in Kirkcaldy has submitted more than 800 appeals at Standard grade and Higher over the past two years, the biggest number in Scotland.

Last year Lenzie Academy, in East Dunbartonshire, submitted 356 Standard grade appeals — six times the national average — and 142 for Higher grade.

Mearns Castle High, in East Renfrewshire, appealed against 379 Standard grade results and 181 Highers.

Some private schools also submitted a large number of appeals, including St Aloysius College in Glasgow and George Watson’s in Edinburgh.

Bill McGregor, general secretary of the Headteachers’ Association Scotland, said that schools had a responsibility to vet appeal requests and to submit only those that they believed were genuine.

“The right to appeal does not lie with parents or pupils, it lies with the school, but a lot of middle-class parents do not accept this,” he said.

“They are firmly of the opinion that if their child does not get a pass then you appeal, putting schools under a lot of pressure.

“The exams are standardised and SQA systems are well bedded-in, so as far as I can see there is no legitimate reason why certain schools should have huge numbers of appeals.”

James Moore, deputy head teacher at Balwearie High, said: “The school policy is to appeal for all candidates when there is sound evidence to support a successful appeal to an improved award.”

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