STUDENTS across Hampshire have been let down by poor exam marking according to headteachers across the county.

“Nothing short of shocking,” is how one head described the standard of marking of this year's GCSE papers after record numbers of appeals were lodged.

Mountbatten school in Romsey saw the percentage of students achieving 5 A* to C grades including maths and English increase, after 25 students saw their grades rise following appeals.

It now stands at 71 per cent Chamberlayne College of the Arts in Southampton saw their headline figure rise six percentage points to 61 per cent after 35 students saw their grades rise on appeal.

Headteacher Ewan Scott said in some cases marks varied by as much as ten per cent.

“This has negatively impacted on students going forward. Some have not got what they wanted and others have had to retake courses they shouldn't have had to,” he added.

Cantell school lodged 235 appeals across a range of subjects and of those successful appeals 36 were big enough increases to improve a grade.

Of 82 additional science papers that were resubmitted, 73 came back with a different mark with the exam board blaming a clerical error.

Headteacher Ruth Evans said: “"We have, again, had phenomenal English results with 72 per cent A*-C but this has not been matched by Maths, where we are still awaiting results of our appeal. This situation is really disappointing and is affecting the course and college choices that students have made as they move into Key Stage 5."

Ian Golding, principal at Oasis Lordshill in Southampton said of the 48 papers that were appealed almost all came back with an improvement in marks with ten results increasing enough to shift a grade boundary - taking their overall pass rate to 49 per cent.

Mountbatten School's executive headteacher Heather McIlroy criticised the standard of exam marking. She said: “At the culmination of their secondary education, all students deserve their exams to be marked with reliability, consistency and integrity.”

“English Language marking this year has been nothing short of shocking.”

The Romsey School also reported that its headline results had improved.

Executive headteacher, Jonathan de Sausmarez said their headline figure had risen two per cent to 68 per cent and they were are still awaiting one outcome which could raise it further.

Hamble College had 32 successful appeals leading to a two per cent improvement on their headline figure.

Nationally the number of inquiries questioning GCSE and A-level grades was up by 48 per cent to 450,500, according to exam watchdog Ofqual.

Roughly one in every 33 exam paper marked this year resulted in an inquiry.

More than 45,000 exam grades from this summer have been changed after schools challenged the results.