Devon’s education chief has said he feared there will be further disruption and changes to how 2021’s exams run as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and has called for more financial support for schools facing extra costs.

More generous grading, advance notice of exam topics and additional papers have been promised by the Department for Education (DfE) to make up for the disruption faced by students during the pandemic.

Those who cannot sit exams due to self-isolation rules will still get a grade, while extra measures to “boost fairness and support students” have been announced.

Cllr James McInnes, cabinet member for schools, said that he was pleased the Government had recognised the effect the pandemic has on education and the disruption at school, he felt further going down the road, things will change further.

Cllr Alistair Dewhirst had asked: “Even though we are now well over half way through the first academic term of the new school year, headteachers still have no idea what form tests and external exams take, so in light of the ‘second wave’ of COVID-19 when the Department for Education clearly are unable to provide this, can the cabinet member give some guidance?”

In response, Cllr McInnes said: “The council has, since the start of the autumn term, been asking the DfE for further information relating to both GCSE exams and end of Key Stage assessments. The Government has stated that GCSE exams should go ahead and that exam boards have been asked to give consideration to the content: it is not yet known what those considerations will look like.

“The DfE have stated they are working closely with stakeholders on a comprehensive set of measures that will ensure exams can be held and students will have the best possible opportunity to do themselves justice.

“Schools have said they must have certainty about contingency arrangements and what further measures will be put in place to ensure that these exams will be fair to pupils in light of the huge disruption to learning caused by Covid.

“I am pleased to see the Government announcement around exams and how they tend to recognise the effect the pandemic has on education and the disruption at school.

“My personal view is that I think further going down the road, they will change further, and I am concerned that we have to look to what it will be like for children taking exams this year, for their careers, and what their exam results will mean, so we will be pressing government for every tiny detail of the broad announcements.”

And Cllr McInnes also confirmed that he was continuing to press Government for extra financial help to compensate for the extra costs of Covid.

He said: “As well as helping children catch up with their learning after the first lockdown, they’ve been confronted with the huge task of making schools as safe as possible for children to return. And they’ve been juggling with cases of Covid in both staff and children and organising for bubbles and, in some cases, whole year groups to self-isolate.

“On top of that, they’ve had to reorganise timetables in some cases and arrange for supply cover. That places a tremendous pressure on them and obviously adds to their costs.

“In the last academic year, schools were offered extra financial help from the Government to compensate for the extra costs of Covid. So far that support has not been repeated in this academic year. I have already written to the Education Secretary calling for better compensation for schools for Covid costs.

“Dawn Stabb (Head of Education) also has raised this issue in her regular meetings with the DfE regional directorate. We are both lobbying as hard as we can. I was asked about the specific costs of Covid for schools but obviously this varies enormously in a county like Devon where we have primaries with just 20 or 30 pupils up to those getting on for 600 children and secondaries with below 1,000 up to some of the largest in the country with well over 2,000.”