Wrapping up GCSE results day
That’s all for today’s GCSE live blog. Congratulations to all students (and teachers) who opened results this morning – and best of luck with whatever you have planned next.
Here are some of the key points that emerged today:
- GCSE pass rates have fallen dramatically across the board, with the proportion those who gained a C grade or above dropping by an unprecedented 2.1 percentage points compared with last year.
- There was also a sharp decline in the number of students gaining a C or above in English.
- The falls are due largely to a new rule that forces 17-year-olds who did not get a C in maths and English to resit those exams. This policy has been criticised by teaching unions.
- Of pupils taking their exams in year 11 (the normal GCSE year) the A*-C pass rate was down by 1.3 percentage points.
- Girls outperformed boys in virtually all subjects, and the drop in the proportion of students achieving a C grade or better between 2015 and 2016 was more pronounced among male students than female.
- There have been falls in the number of students taking design and technology, French and art and design subjects. Teaching unions have warned that the
EBacc measure means students are being directed away from taking creative subjects.
More results from around the country
Stourbridge School Celebrate GCSE Results
Pupils at Old Swinford Hosptial were celebrating today after collecting their GCSE results.
The percentage of results awarded at A* to C grades in five or more subjects was 93.06%. The percentage of results awarded at A* to C grades in five or more subjects including English and Maths was 83.33%.
Tannus from Thames Christian College
Contratulations to Tannus from Thames Christian College achieves 3.8 grades higher than prediction tests indicated despite dyslexia
Twins sisters Alice and Clara Wade – who attend St Mary’s Calne in Wiltshire – have achieved an incredible 24 A* and A grades between them in their GCSEs.
The pair also recently won first prize in the University of Sheffield’s prize for Innovative Use of Technology in Science Learning, with their video Test Tube Babes.
Schools up and down the country have been contributing to our reader callout, keen to trumpet the achievements of their students. Below are a few highlights - you can view the full selection on GuardianWitness
Bufrod student is top of the class
Holly Gorton was thrilled to find she had achieved 12A*/A grades in her GCSEs this morning.
A* success for Sydenham High triplets
2016 GCSE success was a family affair for Sydenham High GDST identical triplets Kate, Louisa & Sophie Hanton. The sisters scooped 26 A*s between them plus 5 As. The school's haul of top GCSE grades continued to rise year on year, bucking the national trend. Almost a third (32%) scored A*s and nearly two thirds (63.2%) achieved either A* or A grades.
Salesian School, Chertsey, sees 88% with five A*-C grades inc. E&M.
Salesian School is celebrating another excellent year of GCSE results: 88% of students earned five A*-C grades (including English and Maths), and 37% of exams taken scored the highest A and A* grades.
When official Progress 8 scores (a new measure, introduced this year, to assess the rate of progress of students since leaving primary school) we expect this to be over +0.5.
Particular congratulations go to Martha Garcia Vizuete and Leah Hennessy, who both earned nine A* and two A grades, and Nadia Baptista, Julia Da Costa and Caroline McCormick (not pictured) who earned nine A* grades and a single A grade. 44 students – 20% of those sitting GCSEs – earned eight or more A/A* grades.
It was an extra special day for Martha, the youngest student in the yeargroup, who was collecting her outstanding results on her sixteenth birthday. “It’s amazing, I can’t really believe it,” she said.
Headteacher James Kibble said: “We’re so proud of our students: once again they’ve demonstrated outstanding progress and attainment. This is proof of their work ethic, the support of their parents and the love, effort and expertise of our fantastic team of teachers. We’ve been encouraging everyone this year to have a ‘growth mindset’ about their learning and it’s great to see that paying off. These are terrific results."
If you’re interested in how this year’s cohort of GCSE students is different from last year, Education Datalab have produced some useful analysis:
4. Government policy means there are now large numbers of 17- and 18-year-olds resitting English and maths GCSE pic.twitter.com/c1wgp0bKMf
— Education Datalab (@edudatalab) August 25, 2016
Throughout the day we’ve been inviting students, parents and teachers to share their exam stories with us. Here are some of the students who got in touch to let us know how they’re getting on.
Jess, Gloucestershire
I’ve only had 30-40% attendance to school due to an auto immune disease and I surprised myself massively in my results! I got an A*, 3 As and 4 Bs which I didn’t expect at all because of how much I’ve missed so I’m really pleased. I’ve no idea how I got an A* in English lit, it’s not a strong subject of mine but I’m not complaining. I’m also insanely proud of all my friends who have all got the grades they needed to take their A levels.
Hannah, Berkshire
I was so nervous leading up to getting my results, and I got hardly any sleep the night leading up to it. I was so shocked when I opened by results, my eyes actually teared up and my mum actually felt like she was about to cry too. I got 9 A*’s and 1 A! I felt that my two years of hard work absolutely paid off.
Chinonso, Dudley, West Midlands
Had fantastic teaching and the school (Bishop Milner) offered great support during exam season. I got an A* in Maths, 2 B’s in Computing and ICT, and A’s in all of the remaining 8 subjects.
Honestly, I feel that my coursework let me down somewhat as some of the A’s could have been A*’s, but I’m very happy with my results. :)
From what I’ve heard, A-levels are going to be tougher this year with the removal of AS, so I’ll crank my revision up to 11 next year (and the year after).
For now, celebration!!
Naomi Weir, deputy director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) has described today’s results as “a mixed picture”.
It is great to see more people taking science subjects due to the future options that they can open up for individuals. However the results are also a reminder of the challenges teachers and pupils alike have in responding to and successfully navigating extensive and fast paced change in courses, assessment, and monitoring.
I sincerely hope that the new government will ensure that future education policy direction or change will be robustly evidence-based, will be done in partnership with those most affected and will be carefully implemented with sufficient time built in for transition. There is too much at stake to do otherwise.
The Guardian’s data journalist, Pamela Duncan has some further analysis on exam grades across foreign languages.
The percentage of students achieving a C grade or better fell across most language subjects this year when compared to 2015 (the exception being Irish, a subject taken by just 1,905 students, all but four of who sat the exam in Northern Ireland).
The drop was most pronounced in Spanish which saw a 2.3 point drop in A* to C grades between 2015 and 2016.
Updated
Guardian reporter Frances Perraudin is at Durham High School for Girls, where the Olympic bronze medal-winning gymnast Amy Tinkler sat her GCSEs. She’s been talking to some of Tinkler’s classmates about their friend’s Olympic success.
Friends of the gymnast Amy Tinkler said they were enormously proud of what she had achieved, managing to win an Olympic bronze medal and complete GCSEs at the same time. Jenny Tipple, who got 2 As and 9 A*s and hopes to study bio-medical sciences at university, said her friend “completely deserved” her success.
“I think everyone is so proud of her. Not everybody can say they went to school with an Olympian,” she said. “She just worked so hard, so it means a lot when she does well.”
Tipple and her friend Dharshini Sambamoorthini watched Tinkler competing from their friend’s house, with a glittery homemade “Go Tinks” banner and inflatable palm trees – an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of Rio. Sambamoorthini, who got 10 A*s and is considering doing medicine at university, said her friend was now spending some time “relaxing and chilling”.
Another friend, Eve Welch, said she had stayed up to watch Tinkler compete and was “absolutely speechless when she won”. “I was in there when she did her maths and English [exams] and I just can’t get over how she’s managed to get an olympic medal and do her GCSEs at the same time. It’s absolutely brilliant.” Welch got 7 A*s, 2 As and a B and hopes to study languages at university before becoming a translator.
Pass rate rises for students in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland students have once again outperformed their counterparts in England and Wales in relation to GCSE results, bucking the national UK trend. The proportion of Northern Irish pupils receiving A* to C grades increased this year to 79.1% of those who took GCSEs. Those who achieved A* to A grades went up in the region to just over 29%.
Girls continue to perform better than boys in GCSE examinations in Northern Ireland. Around 83% of all female entrants obtained A* to C grades in this year’s GCSE exams.
Supporters of grammar schools, which still exist in the province, will use these figures to claim that the consistent high grades of Northern Irish pupils is due to that system continuing to operate. Local teaching unions and educationalists dispute this theory and argue that the reasons for Northern Ireland’s success at both A level and GCSE are more complex than the retention of grammar school and pupil selection primary schools at age 11.
Frances Perraudin has been at Durham High School for Girls, where the Olympic bronze medal-winning gymnast Amy Tinkler did her GCSEs.
After all the excitement of Rio, 16-year-old Tinkler, the youngest of Team GB’s medalists, decided not to face the cameras this morning and instead got her results emailed to her at home by the school.
Tinkler has been a pupil at the high-achieving independent school since she was 3-years-old and in the run-up to her GCSEs staff designed a special teaching plan to accommodate her 31 hours of training a week.
“We took the decision with the family that she would do GCSEs over three years,” says Headteacher Lynne Renwick. “She did PE [GCSE] last year and this year she’s taken her English and Maths. Next year she’ll do her science GCSEs and she’ll also start a [PE] A level course. Her A levels will be staggered over three years as well.”
“It has enabled her to keep up with her studies and she’s a brilliant role model for girls of all ages, because they see that she trains for 31 hours a week, but her homework is never late.”
The school’s director of sport, Lyndsay Lowes, taught Tinkler GCSE PE on Fridays before school started. “We spent a total of 10 to15 hours together one-on-one, but she still came out with an A,” she says, adding that she can’t put into words how it feels to have a pupil win an Olympic medal.
“You could see how much she was enjoying it. I was screaming at the TV and literally had floods of tears coming down my face. Just to see her in her moment, everything she’s worked for over her whole life time, for it to pay off like that is just amazing.”
Updated
Here’s some analysis on how GCSE science grades have changed this year, from the Guardian’s education editor Richard Adams and Pamela Duncan.
A shift in students who previously took Btecs into sciences has seen the number of GCSE science entrants go up across the board, but seen top grades drop in part because of the influx.
Resits policy criticised by teaching unions
Teaching unions have criticised the government’s policy of forcing students to resit English and maths GCSE if they do not achieve a grade C or above.
Jill Stokoe, education policy advisor at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) union, told Press Association that the policy “is not in the best interests of students, and is clearly not working because fewer students are passing their re-sits now that they are compulsory.”
She predicted the fall in A*-C grades reflected “the impact of the Government’s ill-thought-out policy” of all students doing the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects - a group of five performance-indicating subjects including English and maths.
Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, added that analysis of previous data showed that students re-sitting GCSEs a year later only improve by half a grade - while a “significant” number actually achieve a lower score.
He said: “Is it, at 17, the best thing for some youngsters to do or are they better to develop their English skills and maths skills, literacy and numeracy, through their existing vocational programmes?”
Here’s a handy infographic from the exams regulator, Ofqual, looking at which exam subjects are the most popular (and more).
See our summary of GCSE results 2016 https://t.co/8fMT5A9fRj and our infographic https://t.co/PFuJETZpA3 pic.twitter.com/hyoFedS2um
— Ofqual (@ofqual) August 25, 2016
Updated
School standards minister Nick Gibb has welcomed the increase in the number of students taking Ebacc academic subjects
“We want to make our country a place where there is no limit on anyone’s ambition or what they can achieve - that’s why we are working to ensure there are even more high-quality schools in every part of the country,” he said.
“And I am pleased to see that there are more GCSEs being taken in the core academic subjects, those that give students a wider range of opportunities.
“And for those 17-year-olds who have struggled to achieve good grades in maths, we are seeing 4,000 more successful retakes of those exams, delivering better prospects for every one of those young people.”
'Stable' results in Wales, with increase in top grades
Here are some headline results on GCSE and Welsh Baccalaureate performance across Wales:
- The overall GCSE pass rate at A*-C remained stable, at 66.6%
- The proportion of A*-A grades has increased by 0.2 percentage points compared to last year, and stands at 19.4%
- There has been an increase A* grades, which have gone up by 0.1% to 6.1%
- More than 14,000 learners were awarded a Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma
- Almost 12,000 learners achieved the full Intermediate Diploma
Welsh education secretary Kirsty Williams said:
This year’s GCSEs show another strong performance with two thirds of our learners achieving at least A*-C and an increase in the top grades. This is due to the hard work of our pupils and their teachers.
Updated
Students and staff at Cowes Enterprise College on the Isle of Wight are celebrating a strong set of GCSE results – in the same week that Ofsted chair David Hoare resigned after calling the area a “ghetto” where there had been “inbreeding”.
Some 71% of the cohort – who started at the academy below the expected level of attainment for their age – achieved A*-C in English, despite a steep drop in grades nationwide. And 58% of pupils achieved A*-C in both maths and English.
Principal John Peckham said:
“I couldn’t be more proud of the students and staff today. Education on the Isle of Wight has been in the press for all of the wrong reasons in the last few weeks. Today we are proud to showcase what is being achieved on the island and demonstrate the positive progress that is being made to raise aspirations for all of our students.”
It turns out boys do get their results today and also like to jump in the air.
Updated
Test your GCSE skills
'Alarming' fall in pupils taking creative subjects
Teachers unions are warning of an “alarming drop” in the number of students sitting creative subjects at GCSE, Press Association reports.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT union, said the EBacc measure – which rates schools on how many pupils achieve C grades in english, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language – is “undermining critical subjects such as design and technology and art, despite their clear link to many careers and occupations in sectors that the UK thrives in”. She said:
This is a disturbing consequence of the accountability regime now placed on schools.
Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
Too strong a focus on EBacc subjects, driven by high-stakes accountability, with little room for any additional subject choices at key stage 4, means pupils can be limited in their subject choices at A-Level too ... We question the need for further accountability measures when the Progress 8 measure already reflects the important commitment for pupils to study a core of academic subjects as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.
He also expressed concern at the volatility in this year’s results:
GCSE results day is a nervous time for all, as much depends on these grades. 2016 is worse than ever in this regard as the results are so unpredictable following wave after wave of over hasty changes. Such overwhelming change introduces mistakes and makes it hard to sustain a calm focus on teaching.
Meanwhile, Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the language results also reveal some “troubling trends”.
The decrease in the number of students sitting modern foreign languages probably links to the difficulty many schools have in recruiting qualified language teachers. Languages are a critical subject in preparing students for the modern world and better long-term planning in terms of supplying adequate teacher numbers is urgent.
The school funding and teacher recruitment and retention crisis has already hit the ability of schools to offer a full range of subjects and employ suitably qualified teachers.
Updated
Do boys get their GCSE results today too? It doesn’t appear that way from the look of our picture system which is almost entirely jumping girls, as usual.
Updated
Girls outperform boys in almost all subjects
Here’s some more analysis of the gender gap, from the Guardian’s data journalists Pamela Duncan and Helena Bengstsson.
Girls outperformed boys in virtually all subjects in this year’s GCSEs. What’s more, the drop in the proportion of students achieving a C grade or better between 2015 and 2016 was more pronounced among male students than female.
In certain subjects, including engineering, female students outperformed their male counterparts by some margin.
Conversely, boys did better than girls in just four of this year’s exams, with more boys achieving a C grade or higher in maths, construction, other science subjects and other technology subjects.
Updated
Professor Jo-Anne Baird, director of the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, has questioned whether the new resit requirement – thought to be a major factor in today’s drop in grades – is the right call for young people who miss the mark first time around. She said:
The requirement for all to gain grade C standards in English and Maths is surely the right aspiration for the education system, but resitting an exam that you failed, maybe because it didn’t engage you in the first place, could switch people off to further learning. An alternative GCSE that would be more suitable for this large group of students really should be developed.
Falls in A*-C grades are biggest since creation of GCSEs
Today’s drop in A*-C grades is the biggest since the creation of GCSEs in 1988, Press Association is reporting.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of Buckingham’s Centre for Education and Employment Research, told PA: “The fall this year is larger than might have been expected.
“There was the increase of 34% in those having to take English and maths again because they fell below a C grade first time, and the standards were held high.
“But I suspect it may also have something to do with this being the last year of the existing maths and English syllabuses, and some schools concentrating on the new syllabuses, which they are already teaching for next year’s exams.”
This is the last year that GCSE results will be scored with grades A* to G. From next summer, pupils will sit new GCSE courses in English language, English literature and maths, marked from 1-9. The changes will be rolled out across another 17 subjects by summer 2018.
This morning’s unprecedented drop in GCSE grades will mean a difficult day for lots of young people – and they may want to go online to share their stress. But psychology lecturer Pam Ramsden, writing for the Guardian Teacher Network, says disappointed students should consider staying away from social media, at least in the short term.
Students who feel that they have underperformed may feel shame, or fear losing the respect of friends and family. They will often blame themselves and spend time raking over the past.
Social media can compound these feelings, offering a constant stream of reminders that others are feeling #happy, while they are far from it. Once they have a firm plan in place, there’s far less chance of a comparison-induced panic. Remind them that social media is a choice, not a requirement.
Here’s some more analysis from our data journalists Pamela Duncan and Helena Bengtsson:
“While the large drops in the proportion of students achieving A* to C grades in English and maths may be attributable to changes in the cohort of students taking these exams, it is harder to explain away a sharp drop in grades in other subjects, among them manufacturing, computing and science.”
Updated
The drop in students getting at least a C grade in English could be down to a number of factors, according to the exam boards. First, there’s a big increase (31.9%) in the number of students aged 17 and older re-sitting English. This is driven by a government policy requiring students to resit the subject until a grade C is achieved. This year, there was an 8.2 percentage point drop at A*-C for this age group.
There’s also a trend for middle-ability 16-year-olds to switch to a different qualification, the IGCSE, which has prompted a fall in the proportion of students of this age getting an A*-C grade.
Updated
Huge rise in pupils studying computing
The number of pupils studying GCSE computing has jumped by 76.4% from 2015.
Meanwhile, there have been falls in the number of students taking design and technology (down 9.5%), French (which has fallen by 8.1%) and art and design subjects (a 5.9% decrease).
Andrew Hall, chief executive of exam board AQA, said the jump in students taking computing is “really encouraging”.
“Computing is a new qualification that students see as much more relevant to their future. I think that’s a very positive switch,” he said.
The results show also increases in entries for both combined sciences (up 3.3%) and separate biology, chemistry and physics courses (up 3.6%, 5.57% and 4.6% respectively).
Mr Hall said: “What we believe is happening there is that some of the stronger students in the past have taken combined science, are seeing the increased benefit of having the single sciences on their CV and starting to take that.”
Drop in GCSE grades: analysis
The results are out and, on first reading, it appears that the class of 2016 haven’t done as well as their 2015 counterparts, according to our data experts Pamela Duncan and Helena Bengtsson.
However, the slip in grades had been anticipated. A rule introduced this year meant that 17-year-olds in England who got a D grade in English or maths last year had to resit their GCSEs in those subjects, and that has brought the overall grade down this year.
The drop was particularly pronounced in English, where the proportion of students achieving a C grade or higher fell by 5.2 percentage points compared with last year.
Updated
A*-C grades in dramatic decline
The headline results for this year’s GCSE exams have been released. Here’s our latest report from the Guardian’s education editor, Richard Adams:
GCSE pass rates have fallen dramatically across the board, with the proportion who gained a C grade or above dropping by an unprecedented 2.1 percentage points compared with last year – including a sharp decline in the numbers gaining a C or above in English.
The falls are due in large part to new government policies that force 17-year-olds who got a D or lower in English or maths last year to resit those exams, meaning that more students overall were sitting the tests.
But some of the fall is unexplained. Of pupils taking their exams in year 11 (the normal GCSE year) the proportion of pupils gaining A*-C grades was down by 1.3 percentage points.
Of the 17-year-olds who took maths GCSE this year, a group that increased by 32% compared with 2015, fewer than a third got a C or above, compared with more than 70% of 16-year-olds.
The pass rate of 16-year-olds in England was further harmed by increasing numbers of “middle ability” pupils switching to an alternative qualification, the iGCSE.
Only a few minutes to go now until we find out how students across the country have performed this year. In the meantime, here’s how one Secret Headteacher was feeling about today’s results:
I have absolutely no idea what my students will get in their GCSEs – neither as a teacher of a GCSE class nor the head of 180 children in that year. Changes to grade boundaries are made at whim, there are structural changes to questions and papers, and there were some frankly ridiculous questions this year. Then there are serious concerns about the quality of markers, many of whom are inexperienced or overworked, or both.
I’ve been suffering from anxiety since October. I’ve been lying awake in the small hours trying to figure out what else we could do. When I wake up it is often the first thing I think about.
It’s just 15 mins or so until we get the first glimpse of the national picture for this year’s GCSE results. Politicians are already busy wishing everyone good luck
HOUSE! Every MP on my timeline has now wished GCSE candidates good luck with their results. Predictable as posties at Christmas.
— Thomas Penny (@ThomasWPenny) August 25, 2016
Here’s a message from shadow education secretary Angela Rayner
May I take the opportunity to wish the best of luck to everyone awaiting their GCSE exam results due out tomorrow #GCSEResults2016
— Angela Rayner MP (@AngelaRayner) August 24, 2016
And home secretary, Amber Rudd
Good luck to everyone in #Hastings #Rye receiving their #GCSEResults today! I hope you achieve what you're aiming for
— Amber Rudd MP (@AmberRudd_MP) August 25, 2016
Elsewhere on Twitter, it’s only a matter of time before Jeremy Clarkson begins offering his annual careers advice.
There will be lots of anxious students and staff today, but our Secret Teacher wants to remind them that, even though exam results feel momentous, disappointing grades needn’t be the end of the world:
Exams test memory, certainly. They test time management. They test elements of competence in individual subjects. But, ultimately, they really test how good a person is at sitting exams – and this is even more true with the demise of coursework from many areas of the curriculum.
They are infinitely less effective at testing passion, inspiration and potential. And I’ve yet to come across an exam that can assess honesty, loyalty or sense of humour.
Updated
There are changes to the appeals process this year – exam regulator Ofqual has amended its guidelines governing exam re-marks in response to increasing numbers of students challenging their grades. As a result, there are concerns that it will be harder for students to successfully appeal against their results this summer.
Updated
Some brave students in Essex have shared their results on live TV
Updated
Students and teachers – share your GCSEs stories
We want to hear from you – are you a headteacher getting to grips with Progress 8? Are you a student staring at a straight run of A*s? Or perhaps you’re a teacher who has had to overcome the challenges of curriculum upheavals?
You can share your GCSE stories by clicking on the “Contribute” button above. We’d like to see photos too – make sure you include important details, like the name of the school, in the description box. You can also share your stories, photos and videos by adding the Guardian on WhatsApp +44 (0) 7867 825056 – please include “GCSEs” in the caption.
Updated
Girls expected to outperform boys
Girls are expected to maintain their lead over boys across the vast majority of subjects when GCSE results are released later today.
Last year, girls outperformed boys in all but two subjects, according to Press Association.
It reports that 73.1% of female students were awarded at least a C grade (which is generally considered to be a good pass) in 2015, compared with just 64.7% of their male counterparts.
A higher percentage of female students also received the very top grade, with 8% scoring an A* compared with 5.2% of male students – a gap of 2.8 percentage points, with further gaps of 7.2 percentage points at A*-A grade, and widening to 8.4 percentage points at A*-C.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of Buckingham University’s Centre for Education and Employment Research, said: “Girls are a long way ahead of boys, doing better in 47 of the 49 subjects and being over 15 percentage points ahead in English.”
Today is also a big day for free schools. Three secondaries, opened in 2011 under former education secretary Michael Gove (remember him?), will be reporting the grades of the first cohort of students to complete years 7 to 11 under the controversial school model.
Among those watching results closely today will be Toby Young, founder of the West London Free School, one of the highest-profile of the free school pioneers. He told the Guardian this week that he is confident, and is hoping his school’s results will be above national and borough average. “I hope our EBacc, Best 8 and Progress 8 scores are above average too.”
Critics say that results for this first full cohort of free school GCSE candidates are likely to be impressive because they benefitted from generous government funding during the early days. There have, however, been some well-publicised failures. And critics remain concerned about free schools opening in areas of low need, as well as the under-representation of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Yesterday, 24 hours before pupils could confirm their GCSE results, the exam boards released their 2016 grade boundaries online – letting schools and students know the minimum mark they would need for each grade.
With several boundaries higher than in previous years, the result was generally less than positive...
The Maths Grade Boundaries... pic.twitter.com/hCMBOxR25Z
— michael (@michae1_1amptey) August 24, 2016
When you finally fill yourself with confidence for results day then you see the grade boundaries 😩 #GCSEResults2016 pic.twitter.com/gfpJnuxoSz
— Charlie Jones (@CharlieJones) August 24, 2016
Raise your hand if you've ever felt personally victimised by the GCSE grade boundaries 2016 #GCSEResults2016 pic.twitter.com/7e1KQeM2FV
— Beth (@ItsB3thx) August 24, 2016
looking at the grade boundaries like pic.twitter.com/o0tbHDo0wJ
— Cherie (@drink_waterr) August 24, 2016
But it wasn’t all bad news...
Finding out how low the physics grade boundaries are 😅 #GCSEresults2016 pic.twitter.com/KzlXz2a4b0
— Lucy (@_lucy_michelle_) August 24, 2016
And the anxiety proved a source of poetic inspiration for some...
Roses are red,
— Courts (@CLEIXO) August 24, 2016
There's clouds in the sky,
Why are edexcel's grade boundaries excessively high? #gcseresultsday2016
Results day begins
It’s GCSE results day, which means nervous students across the UK will be waking up and making their way to school to find out how they have fared.
Headteachers may be anxious too, as this is the first year their results will be judged according to the new Progress 8 measure. Guardian education editor Richard Adams has created a thorough explanation of the changes, which will now rate schools on how much progress pupils make from primary school, rather than how many A*-C grades they achieve. Advocates say it will create a fairer system – with less obsessive attention on the C/D borderline – but critics say the removal of the previous value-added measure (which took a school’s local context into account), could disadvantage those in less affluent areas.
Our overnight story reports that pass rates in GCSE exams could take a tumble this year because of new government rules that force older teenagers to retake core subjects if they fail to get good grades. It says:
For the first time, 17-year-olds in England who gained a D grade in English or maths last year will have had to resit GCSEs in those subjects – and their performance is likely to pull down the average pass rate both for England and the UK.
However, the pass rate for 16-year-olds in England who are sitting GCSEs for the first time will be unaffected. That group’s results are likely to be little changed compared with 2015.
We’ll be bringing you the latest updates throughout the day.
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