UCAS no predicted grades

Hi sent my reference out to my old school on Sunday, they didn't complete the reference until today. However, I got an email stating they had put no predicted grades.

Emailed to question why no predicted grades and was told that because I'm no longer taught there (I am sitting exams privately) they were unable and unwilling to put any down.

Therefore I have a UCAS application with no predicted grades! What do I do? UCAS online is suggesting I contact the universities directly offering another referee but I don't actually have anyone who's teaching me and could therefore provide "predicted grades" based on teaching me.

Hi sent my reference out to my old school on Sunday, they didn't complete the reference until today. However, I got an email stating they had put no predicted grades.

Emailed to question why no predicted grades and was told that because I'm no longer taught there (I am sitting exams privately) they were unable and unwilling to put any down.

Therefore I have a UCAS application with no predicted grades! What do I do? UCAS online is suggesting I contact the universities directly offering another referee but I don't actually have anyone who's teaching me and could therefore provide "predicted grades" based on teaching me.

You don't need predicted grades. They're optional for a reason. Universities don't put much weighting on predicted grades because they're proven to be unreliable.

If a university needs them then they'll contact you directly to ask for your target grades but if you're worried then ring your universities up this afternoon/tomorrow to just check that they're happy with this if you're resitting your exams.

Really, even for top ranking unis, they don’t want predictions?

They don't USE predictions - that would be unfair because some schools make high predictions and others make low predictions (and there's evidence that students from poorer backgrounds tend to get lower predictions).

so how can academic unis make decisions on applications?