School exams could be scrapped next summer, a senior Tory MP has said.

Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Committee, said there was only a "50:50" chance that GCSE and A-Levels would go ahead as normal next year.

He urged the under-fire exams regulator Ofqual to decide by October whether to press ahead with exams or to award grades based on teacher assessments.

The problem with using mocks is some children with tutors will have already practiced the same papers. In my DSs school one child had a tutor this year and suddenly scored a blinder in all his science mocks. The school offered all the children a second opportunity to sit mocks during lockdown. This child declined. Fortunately his results weren’t based on his unusual mock scores but on his performance throughout the courses.

My own son scored a 9 in his French mock, whilst I think the 7 he got was too low because he has dyslexia there was no guarantee he would have performed to that standard in a the actual exam. He probably should have been given an 8 but as we know there were winners and losers and we have to resign ourselves to that.

We are lucky as this son is going down a vocational route. Next years won’t so it will be harder to accept any unfairness. Suspect I’ll have to work on preparing myself as the present government appear to lack that skill.

Ofqual says it is working with exam boards and the government to make contingency plans if there is a "widespread outbreak".

But until that becomes necessary, the watchdog is telling schools to assume exams will continue as scheduled.

Most GCSEs and A-level exams are planned to run from early May.

On Monday, Ofqual issued advice that "students, schools and colleges should continue to prepare for the summer exams and assessments as usual".

But it said there would be guidance to "manage any particular risks" to the exam season if coronavirus became widespread.

He told MPs he would "trust in teachers rather than algorithms", a reference to problems in last year's exam results.

The Ofqual exam watchdog will now have to devise how this will work.

Mr Williamson also said it would be "mandatory" for schools to provide "high-quality remote education" of three to five hours per day.

He said Ofsted inspectors would check that this was delivered.

Labour's Shadow Education Secretary, Kate Green, accused Mr Williamson of "chaos and confusion" - and said he had failed to listen to the teaching profession.

Geoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, warned against repeating the "shambles" of last summer's cancelled exam season.