The number of students receiving the top GCSE grades rose for first time in seven years despite major reforms
The proportion of entries scoring a C or above – or a 4 under the new grading system – increased by 0.5 percentage points from 66.4 per cent last year to 66.9 per cent.
Tens of thousands of teenagers received their GCSE results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland amid major exam reforms.
Last year, the GCSE pass rates fell and the number of pupils attaining the top grades dropped to the lowest point in a decade.
Grades were awarded in the new tougher GCSE subjects – maths and English – last summer. Students in England received the new numerical grades in a further 20 subjects this year.
Headteachers have raised concerns that the new GCSE grading system sends a "demoralising message" to students who are likely to score lower results in their exams.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said it had concerns about pupils performing at the lower end of the grading scale.
"Our concern, however, is over those pupils at the other end of the scale who are taking exams which are harder than their predecessors and who have been told by the Government that a grade 4 is a 'standard pass' and a grade 5 is a 'strong pass'," Malcolm Trobe, ASCL deputy general secretary said.
"That is a very demoralising message to those who achieve grades 1, 2 and 3, and the new system does not work very well for them at all."
See below how we covered GCSE results day
Live Updates
UK GCSE results show wide differences in the proportions of top grades handed out in each subject.
More than a third of entries for classical GCSE subjects were awarded a grade 9 this summer, while in other courses, just one or two percent scored the highest grade.
Overall, 37.7 per cent of entries for classical GCSEs - Latin, classical Greek, ancient history, classical civilisation, and biblical Hebrew - were given a grade 9.
Individual sciences also scored high percentages of the very highest grade, figures show.
In total, more than one in eight (12.6 per cent) of UK chemistry entries were awarded a grade 9, along with 12.2 per cent of entries for physics and 12.0% of biology entries.
At the other end of the scale, just 0.8 per cent of entries for science, double award got the top grade, along with 2 per cent in English.
PA
Business groups urge apprenticeship reform as GSCE results roll in. The government should listen
The number of starts has been fallingBoys are closing in on girls in terms of top grades, with the gap between the sexes the smallest it has been for eight years
However, girls still massively outperform their counterparts. Here is our voices piece on the obsession with the gender gap:
'Why do we always pit boys against girls on GCSE results day and pretend everything is fixed to the girls' advantage?'
Everywhere I look, there’s a headline suggesting that too many girls gaining top marks is a problem to be solved by examination reform.Exam resits
Teenagers who fail to secure at least a grade 4 – the equivalent to a C - in GCSE English and maths have to resit the qualification.
Figures out today show that the proportion of students aged 17 and above that achieved a “standard” grade 4 pass in the reformed GCSEs in English and maths fell.
Of this cohort, only 22.7 per cent achieved a grade 4 or higher in maths this summer, compared to 37 per cent last summer – a drop of 14.3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, 33.1 per cent achieved a 4 or above in English language this summer, compared to 35.5 per cent last year.
In light of the results, Suzanne O’Farrell, curriculum and assessment specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), called the government’s resit policy “flawed”.
More top grades in English and Maths
A higher proportion of English and maths GCSEs were awarded top grades this summer.
A fifth of entries for English Literature and maths scored at 7 or above, along with around one in six English entries.
Boys outperformed girls for top grades in maths, but girls significantly surpassed their male classmates in the two English GCSEs.
Overall, 17.5 per cent of entries scored at least a grade 7 - equivalent to an A grade - in GCSE English, up from 16.8 per cent in 2017.
In English literature, 20 per cent of entries was awarded a 7 or above, up from 19.1 per cent.
And in GCSE maths, 20 per cent got at least a 7, up from 19.9 per cent last year.
A gender breakdown shows that for the second year, boys scored more of the highest grades in maths than their female peers, with 20.9 per cent of boys' entries awarded 7-9, compared to 19.1 per cent for girls.
But almost twice as many girls' entries were awarded at least a 7 in English than boys' (22.5 per cent compared to 12.6 per cent), while in English literature, one in four (25.8 per cent) of girls' entries gained a 7 or above compared to 14.1 per cent for boys.
The figures cover 16-year-olds in England only.
PA
The decline of the arts and D&T
GCSE entries in art and design increased by 1.8 per cent this year - but entries for design and technology and other arts subjects have fallen.
The latest figures out today show that entries for D&T have plummeted by nearly a quarter (23 per cent) compared to last year.
Performing and expressive arts entries have fallen by 45 per cent in a year, while music entries have dropped by 7 per cent.
Media, film and TV studies entries have dropped by 6 per cent and drama entries are down 5 per cent.
Industry experts and headteachers have argued that government reforms – which prioritise core academic subjects – are to blame.
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) – a league table measure introduced in 2011 – only judges schools on the number of students that take up maths, English and science, a foreign language and either history or geography at GCSE.
A group of associations representing subjects not included in the EBacc have today warned that the curriculum is narrowing and is producing "factory-farmed kids".
School which banned talking in corridors sees rise in results
A strict rule of silence in corridors has seen a school's GCSE results shot up by 10 per cent in just a year, the headteacher has said.
Pupils are banned from talking to each other walking between lessons and three times a day in the playground.
The Albany School in Hornchurch, Essex, said the behaviour policy introduced last year had led to better exam results.
Val Masson said the new rules have transformed the classrooms and led to a spike in results, particularly in English and Science.
She said: "These fantastic results showcase the impact this new behaviour policy has already started to have on our students in a very short space of time.
"We have some way to go but with our new compulsory silent revision sessions for Year 11s being introduced next year, we expect results to get even better.
"These teaching methods have been called old fashioned but I would describe it as pure common sense.
"Students deserve the right to learn in a calm, quiet and academic atmosphere."
SWNS
Students protest school exclusions on tube
A group of South London students have chosen GCSE results day to highlight the link between exclusions and ending up in prison.
A mocked-up underground tube map as appeared on the northern line showing how life can lead from school to prison.
The poster read: "While most pupils across the country are excitedly waiting for news about their future, thousands remain left behind.
"Every day, 35 pupils (a full classroom) are permanently excluded from school. Only 1% of them will go on to get the five good GCSEs needed to succeed.
"It is the most disadvantaged children who are disproportionately punished by the system. We deserve better."
Students now more anxious about academic performance than body image, expert says
‘There is more pressure on students and they feel they have to be more competitive’
Would you pass GCSE science? Take the quiz
Tens of thousands of students are due to collect their results this week - but how well do you know your genomes and the advantages of phytoextraction?A profoundly deaf student who got a clean sweep of top grades in her GCSEs said her impairment pushed her to work harder and she refused to let it define her.
Lily Olliver sees herself as just an "ordinary girl who happens to be deaf".
The 16-year-old, of Hove, achieved 10 9s and the top mark of an A hat - the equivalent of an A** - in further maths.
Lily, who sits on the youth advisory board for the National Deaf Children's Society, said: "I'm in shock, I'm really pleased. It's a relief.
"I don't think being deaf should stop you in anything you feel you want to do. I don't want it to define me.
"If anything it caused me to work a bit harder and fight a bit more."
She plans to return to Brighton College for A-levels and is hoping to study a combination of chemistry, biology, maths, further maths and philosophy but is still deciding exactly which subjects to pick.
Out of the 732 students across the country who received seven grade 9s or above, 34 studied at Brighton College, the private school said.
There were 10 students who achieved at least nine 9s at the school with one getting the highest he possibly could in all exams - eight nines, an A hat and two A*s.
(PA)
School standards minister Nick Gibb said: "Congratulations to all the pupils getting their results today.
"All of their hard work, and that of their teachers, has paid off and I hope that this is the first step to a bright and successful future.
"Whatever they choose to do next, whether it is staying at school, going to college, or starting an apprenticeship, these qualifications will give them a solid base of knowledge and skills that they can build on.
"Thanks to our reforms and the hard work of teachers, education standards are rising in our schools and pupils have shown their abilities by achieving excellent results today, with so many pupils meeting and exceeding the standards we expect."
Rising popularity of sciences
The most popular GCSE this year was science double award, making up 14.6 per cent of entries, which overtook maths, English and English literature.
Biology has seen the biggest increase in candidates, with entry numbers up 23 per cent. This was followed by the other two sciences, with chemistry entries up 18.6 per cent and physics up 17.2 per cent.
And computing - which is considered a science under a key government league table measure - has seen entries increase by 11.8 per cent.
On the reforms to GCSEs in England, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "All the time and effort that has gone into reforming GCSEs, why have we done that?
"Because GCSEs were designed for an age when children were then maybe going into employment or going into the sixth form, so they were a gateway to other things.
"Now everyone has to stay in education to 18, so why have we got children doing at least 30 hours of exams, all the stress and all the time and all the money that is, when actually for employers, it's what they get at the age of 18 that's going to be important.
"That's where the real reform should be happening. And this is looking to me like a qualification that time forgot."
He added that there should be more focus on the youngsters who score at the lower end of the grade scale.
"Under the old GCSE, if you got an F or a G, whilst you may not have felt particularly pleased with it, there wasn't a national narrative saying 'you have failed to get the standard pass, you have failed to get a strong pass', yet that is now built in," he said.
Modern Foreign Languages
Entries for modern foreign languages (MFL) at GCSE have bucked the trend and increased.
Figures out today show that total MFL entries across the UK rose by 0.4 per cent.
GCSE entries for Spanish increased by 4.4 per cent and German by 2 per cent.
The figures come after warnings that German risked "extinction" at A-level. See below:
A-levels in Chinese overtakes German for first time
‘We’re seeing German just moving into extinction really’Gender gap
Boys have narrowed the gap with girls at the top grades and "good" passes at GCSE.
This year, across the UK, 17.2 per cent of GCSE entries by male pupils were awarded an A/7 grade or above – up 0.8 percentage points on last year’s figure of 16.4 per cent.
The proportion of female entries achieving an A/7 or above did not change on last year - at 23.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, at C/4 and above, 62.3 per cent of male entries achieved the "standard" pass - compared with 61.6 per cent last year.
The performance of girls improved for these grades but only by 0.3 percentage points.
It comes after experts predicted that the new GCSEs - which have less coursework and more of a focus on end of year exams - would favour boys.
Grade 9
Experts had predicted that only 200 students would get the new top grade - a grade nine - under the new numerical GCSE grading system in England.
The top grade - introduced by the government - is meant to be harder to get than an A*.
But new figures out today reveal that a total of 732 teenagers taking at least seven reformed GCSEs scored a clean sweep of 9s in all subjects this summer.
And the results are in...
Number of students securing "good" pass rates at GCSE - C or above or 4 and above - has risen by 0.5 percentage points to 66.9 per cent
Number of students achieving at least an A grade or above – or a 7 and above – has risen by 0.5 percentage points to 20.5 per cent
This is the first time since 2011 that the percentage of students securing top grades has increased
It comes as boys are closing the gap on girls at the top grades
Those in Wales and Northern Ireland will continue to receive their grades in the traditional A* to G format.
The new linear GCSEs – which have harder content, less coursework, and more exams at the end of two years – are now being graded using 9 to 1, rather than A* to G.
Only 732 16-year-olds in England, who took at least seven new GCSEs, scored a clean sweep of 9s in all subjects.
