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The algorithm took the teachers' recommended grades and used them only to rank the students at that school. The actual grades were calculated based on past years' performance for each school. So if you were the top performer at a low-ranking school, your grade would be in line with top performers at that school in previous years.

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No, teachers submitted both predicted grades, and in large cohort classes (such as English and Maths), a rank ordering of the entire cohort.

They had to submit ranking even if the class size was very small.

No. The system aimed for no nationwide grade inflation. When it then took a number of private school’s predictions at face value (no alteration if you paid for a small class size), meaning fewer high grades available for other schools. So lots of state schools had across the board drops from previous years.

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