Harris academy chain faces Edexcel inquiry into exam methods An Edexcel exam processing centre in London. The exam board is investigating the Harris academey chain. One of the country's best-known school academy chains, Harris, is being investigated by an exam board after an allegation of inappropriate methods used to boost results at one of its secondary schools in south-east London. The Edexcel exam board has begun an inquiry after a complaint that in 2012 staff at the Harris Beckenham academy in effect led more than 20 BTec students step-by-step through coursework they should have tackled alone. The coursework is marked entirely within the school. Edexcel, the country's biggest qualifications awarder, is looking into the conduct of the 2012 BTec in applied science, equivalent to two GCSEs, at the Beckenham school and has begun related checks at the other secondary schools in the group. On Thursday Edexcel described the extension to other schools as precautionary. It said it had finished gathering evidence and was now "working with Harris to improve a number of aspects" of the BTec. The Harris Federation said Edexcel had told the chain it had found no evidence of malpractice. A Harris spokeswoman said: "Earlier this year Edexcel investigated science BTec at a single Harris academy after a complaint was made in 2012, but no evidence of malpractice was found. As part of this process, we have been working with Edexcel on ensuring our science BTec marking fully aligns with their expectations. The London-based Harris Federation, set up by carpet tycoon Lord Harris, is lauded by the education secretary, Michael Gove, as a beacon of the academy system for its work in deprived areas. Its chief executive, Sir Dan Moynihan, has acted as an adviser to the Department for Education (DfE) and was knighted last year. But a number of sources speak of a culture that can appear obsessed with boosting the percentage of pupils who gain at least five GCSEs or equivalent at C or above including English and maths, the indicator by which secondary schools are ranked in league tables. Sources at more than one Harris school said students have been withdrawn from GCSE courses at the last minute because they were predicted to get a D or lower, thus pushing down average results down. Sources suggest this has happened, in some cases, only weeks or even days before the exam. Harris disputes that this happens regularly, or at very short notice. One teacher, speaking anonymously, said: "I've had students where a D would be an amazing result for them, or help them get on a course, and they're told they can't sit the exam. They feel they've wasted two years of work and they're understandably distraught. There's this almost steroidal culture of getting students to a C grade at all costs. There's a high staff turnover; many of the teachers are newly qualified and feel they can't challenge it. The Edexcel inquiry centres around the BTec science intake at Harris Beckenham in 2012, the first academic year after the chain took over the former Kelsey Park sports college, a school with above-average levels of pupil deprivation, special educational needs and English as a second language. Former pupils describe being told, a few months before GCSE science exams, that the lower two sets would instead take the BTec. To catch up, teachers led them through coursework they should have done alone over two academic years, they said. One pupil said: "We'd already done about a year-and-a-half of the GCSE. And the BTec is two years of coursework. So they basically ... told us what to do. Harris disputes this alleged version of events, saying some students were swapped from GCSE to BTec courses after the federation took charge of the school as it was seen as "more appropriate." Some were then registered late, erroneously. Such changes were common, and normally done in consultation with parents, the chain said, but added that it was wrong to say this regularly happened at short notice. When Harris took over previous results were so poor that it was justified in focusing on courses where students had a better chance of passing. However, some critics of Harris and some other academy chains question whether the system for ranking schools encourages too narrow a focus overall. The measure of five good GCSEs including English and maths has long been condemned by some as too narrow and open to abuse. In February the DfE announced it would be replaced with a more complex, "value added" measure. Harris has previously faced criticism that some of its schools rely too heavily on GCSE equivalents such as BTecs to boost results. In its first academic year as Harris Beckenham, the school saw 53% of year 11 pupils get five GCSEs or equivalents, well up on the 36% in 2011. However, when GCSEs alone are measured, the rise was much smaller - from 30% to 33%. The percentage of pupils attaining the academically rigorous bundle of Ebacc GCSEs actually fell under Harris, from 14% to 5%.