Exclusive by Paola Alvino

AN EXAMS glitch that left 41 children without GCSE results in drama was yesterday condemned as "just not good enough."

Golborne High School headteacher Stephen Turner refused to publish any results for the school until the missing grades were released by the Edexcel Foundation Examinations Board.

He said the missing results could bump up the school's exam analysis by "a good two per cent."

"Only six out of 47 children got drama results which were all Es and Fs. Another 41 received a "Q", which means results are pending.

"We have children going to Winstanley College and Wigan and Leigh College who are thinking of doing drama or theatre, but who don't have a drama result. Every child has the right to receive their results today.

"We have no explanation as to why this happened, we haven't been able get any sense out of Edexcel, and we can't release any GCSE results until they come in."

The JOURNAL was able to reach a Media Affairs spokesman for Edexcel, Stevie Pattison-Dick, who told us the results may have been held back because the school had failed to supply coursework grades or, in rare cases, on suspicion of cheating.

She said: "Usually when this happens it is a little admin-type thing that is to blame. It may well be that we are missing marks for coursework or too many marks may be the same which raises a question as to whether there has been duplication.

"In the rarest of rare cases the moderator may refer the exams on suspicion of cheating if answers are too similar."

She said in 99 per cent of cases grades could be issued within 12 hours of any inquiry.