STUDENTS at a Poole school have been left with a question mark hanging over their German GCSE results after an exam board lost their papers.

The 41 pupils at St Edward’s School in Oakdale were informed as they picked up their results on Thursday that Edexcel had lost a number of their submissions in written German.

Just six of the 47 papers, all sent off at the same time in May, were marked.

Instead, the majority of the pupils have been given a grade for this element calculated from other components of the course.

While Edexcel insists that they will not be disadvantaged, they could still have lost out on a better grade if they had excelled in the written submission. The German exam is made up of four components – speaking, listening, reading and writing. Only the writing unit was impacted.

The exam board only notified the school by way of emails to each candidate late on Tuesday night.

It states: “I am sorry to inform you that the above script for the candidate at your centre is currently not available for marking. Despite extensive searches having been carried out we have not yet been able to locate the script.”

It said candidates had been granted an “aegrotat” result – a term usually used when a candidate has been absent because of illness.

“This means that a result has been calculated based on achievement in related components at the same level taken in the same or earlier examination series.”

Head teacher Pola Bevan said it was an “upsetting incident” for all concerned.

She told the Echo: “I think the students were unsettled by this and so were the parents. The exams officer then had to try to get around everyone affected and try to reassure them. People work hard for two years and want to get the best results they can get – unfortunately there is no way of knowing that now.”

She said she would be writing a letter to the exam board to express her disappointment, adding: “They have a record of them arriving so it’s within their processes that they have lost them. It has caused anxiety for my students, their parents and the German teachers who have done everything right – we sent everything off in good faith.”

Edexcel has said if exam papers were found they would be marked and the students’ grades amended “only where the new mark is higher”. Students are able to appeal the aegrotat marks.