A TOP Bolton teacher has written to the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson sharing his concerns about students being ready for assessments this year.

Tony Grogan has appeared on Department for Education advertisements and also was recognised at the National Teaching awards as a 'leading teacher'.

But he fears the 'playing field is no longer level and students in areas which have been hit harder by Covid will suffer should exams continue'.

The 47-year-old is calling for action as he feels there is a divide and gulf between pupils during the pandemic and it will affect their grades.

He said: "This is grossly unfair for students living in regions which have suffered more due to Covid outbreaks than those regions which have not seen the same challenges.

"I have personally had to isolate from my classes, many members of my classes have had to isolate, and complete year groups have been forced to isolate.

"This means, that in some cases, students have had much less face to face teaching time than would be ideal.

"Despite teachers’ best efforts students many not achieve their potential in exams.

"In contrast, students in regions that have not been hit as hard by Covid are able to benefit from increased teacher contact time."

Mr Grogan, who teaches in Bolton, is asking education chiefs to come up with a plan as some students will not be ready for exams.

He said: "I want the Government to take some leadership and come up with a plan now as the longer it goes on students and parents are going to be stressed about what they have to do so they can get grades they deserve.

"There are options such as teacher assessment of what their predicted grades would be or another would be to have a piece of assessed coursework with four questions which they all work on and then a dip test of 10 pieces are picked and judged if grades are right.

"I think we could just have another situation like last year where they are decided on teacher assessments at the last minute.

"I feel like I have to say something now as I don't want parents or children to be crying on results day.

"It appears this Government is taking a less proactive approach and is happy to see students in many regions stuffer and essentially be ‘thrown under the bus’ in order to maintain an illusion of examinations continuing as normal."