More than 1,000 cheating students caught sneaking their phones into GCSE and A-level exams last summer

MORE than 1,000 cheating students were caught sneaking their mobile phones into their GCSE and A-level exams last summer – a rise of a quarter in a year.

Official figures also showed a rocketing 149 per cent rise in the numbers of teachers and school staff handed penalties for exam “malpractice”.

Exam watchdog Ofqual said the most common cases were “unauthorised materials” being brought into exam venues, with the second plagiarism.

Malpractice covers anything that could "undermine the integrity of an exam” including students speaking in an exam hall or teachers failing to comply with exam board rules.

The latest figures, which cover GCSEs, AS-levels and A-levels taken in England last summer, show 2,715 penalties were issued to students.

That’s up from 2,180 the year before.

And 895 were handed out to staff, up from 360 in 2016.

The most common penalty handed out was a loss of marks, with students caught with phones most likely to drop points.

Around 490 students had their grades declared invalid.

Maths and computing combined accounted for more than a third of all student malpractice penalties in 2017.

Staff were also reprimanded with written warnings for giving improper help to candidates.

Last month, Ofqual said exam safeguards should be "strengthened" in its review of rules allowing teachers to set question papers.

In a report, published in the wake of exam leak allegations, the watchdog said cheating is rare but can be "deeply damaging" to public confidence when it happens.

Despite the rise in numbers of staff and pupils being caught out, the number of punishments handed out to schools and colleges fell from 155 to 120.