Hundreds of thousands of teenagers were collecting their GCSE exam results on Thursday in a year when efforts have been made in England to return grading to pre-pandemic levels.
More than a fifth (22.0%) of UK GCSE entries were awarded the top grades – at least a 7 or an A – this year, down by 4.3 percentage points on last year when 26.3% achieved the top grades.
James Smith, Elias Stisted, Katherine Edwards and Emily Farrar with their GCSE results at Portsmouth Grammar School (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Annabel Bolton checks her results with her mother Helen (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Lara Georgescu receives her results at Ark Greenwich Free School, south-east London (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
Pupils at Ark Greenwich Free School compare their results (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
Pupils open their results at Paddington Academy in west London (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Ben Sassons, 16, with his results at Varndean School in Brighton (Annahita Hossein-Pour/PA)
Students across Northern Ireland were also celebrating positive GCSE results, with the percentage of top grades remaining above the pre-Covid average.
Oliver Keown, Selena Byrnes, Katie Carson, Izzy Martin, Anna Brewster, Chloe Lyons, Eve Moore and Luke Ryan, pupils at Sullivan Upper School in Belfast, celebrate their GCSE results in traditional style (Liam McBurney/PA)
Pupils at Sullivan Upper School after receiving their results (Oliver McVeigh/PA)
Oliver Keown and Luke Ryan with their results (Liam McBurney/PA)
Erin Rice and Caitlin Muldoon, pupils at St Dominic’s Grammar School in Belfast, welcome their results (Liam McBurney/PA)
Olivia Corr, a pupil at St Dominic’s Grammar School, was among those collecting results on Thursday (Liam McBurney/PA)
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was on hand to celebrate with students at Paddington Academy in west London.