GCSE results live: Students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to discover grades | GCSEs
Published: 2025-08-21 09:19:15 | Views: 26
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland await grades
Good morning and welcome to our GCSE results day blog.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are nervously awaiting their grades today.
Last year, the aftermath of the Covid pandemic was squeezed out of results as 16-year-olds received grades more similar to pre-pandemic levels in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Overall, the top grade 9 was awarded to 5.1% of the more than 5m courses taken by 16-year-olds in England, a fraction better than in 2023.
The proportion of A*s and As awarded to 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland dropped from 35.1% to 31%, and Cs or above from 87% to 82.4%.
In Wales, the top A* and A grades for 16-year-olds dipped from 22% in 2023 to 19.4%, and the proportion of Cs from 65.6% to 63.2%, which was lower than in 2019.
This year’s GCSEs are for pupils who possibly got the rough end of the Covid stick: their final year at primary school and first year of secondary (key transition point) disrupted, Sats cancelled, mental health and special needs increased, etc.
Stay with us as we look at whether the overall 9-4 pass rates are affected in English and maths, as well as if girls’ overall results dip again (previous research suggests girls came out of Covid-era school closures worse off), and any unusually bumpy results in individual subjects, and resits.
Key events
“Vocational qualifications, like Cambridge Nationals, are increasingly important,” according to Jill Duffy, the chief executive of the exam board OCR.
She said:
Look at the range of vocational qualifications issued today and you’re bound to be impressed with what young people are achieving. Vocational qualifications in subjects like Engineering and Health and Social Care are increasingly popular, and for good reason. They offer practical, stimulating experiences that many students and employers are looking for.
Seeing this diversity of qualifications, and the well-deserved celebrations of so many young people, is what makes results day so exciting – it’s the highlight of our year as an exam board.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer congratulated students and said their future under his Labour government would be dictated by their “ambition” and not by their “background”.
He wrote on X:
To everyone receiving their results today, a huge congratulations, you should be proud of all you’ve achieved.
My government will ensure that your future is shaped by your talent and ambition, not your background.
“Results day is an important milestone for students,” said the chief regulator at Ofqual, Sir Ian Bauckham.
He said: “While there will inevitably be nerves as students receive their results, they should be proud of their achievements and can be confident that their grades will be widely recognised by employers, schools and colleges.
“Today’s grades will open up opportunities for students as they move on to their next stage.”
Earlier this month in an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Bauckham put up a staunch defence of Ofqual after it was forced to withdraw a decade of statistics detailing the number of students granted extra time and other assistance for A-levels and GCSEs.
Bauckham said the confusion had arisen because, rather than showing access arrangements solely for students entered for GCSEs and A-levels in one particular year, the data includes a much broader list of access arrangements.
Each access arrangement lasts two years. There can be duplicate applications for the same student, and the list may include pupils with special arrangements in place who did not sit exams that year at all.
I’ve been clear that moving forward … we need to publish actual granted access arrangements that relate to actual entries in the year in question.”
The amount and volume of assessment for students at the end of key stage 4 is “excessive and unnecessary,” the general secretary of the NAHT has warned.
The Government launched a review of curriculum and assessment in schools and colleges in July last year.
The independent review is expected to consider whether there are opportunities “to reduce the overall volume of assessment” at GCSE.
Before the final report from the review, which is due in the autumn, headteachers’ unions have called for the burden of assessment to be reduced at GCSE to alleviate some of the pressures on young people.
Paul Whiteman said:
The volume of content, the reliance on final exams, and the average of 30+ hours of exams per student at the end of key stage 4 are all excessive and unnecessary.
We must move away from an almost exclusive reliance on fully linear, terminal exams, and instead allow modular assessments and reintroduce more non-exam assessment and project-based assessments, in order to complement exams and better assess what students know and can do.”
The negative impact of Covid-19 and the cost-of-living situation will linger for a “number of years still,” according to the chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association.
Bill Watkin said that there are more young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) which “makes it difficult” for schools and colleges to accommodate all their needs.
Colleges have been faced with “large numbers” of students who are calling for their own room, invigilator, and extra time to do exams, Watkin said.
He added: “It’s very difficult to provide for all of them.
“There just aren’t enough rooms or enough invigilators and that’s not going to get easier anytime in the immediate future.”
He also said he expected sixth form college admissions to become “more competitive” because of a rising 16-year-old population.
Government urged to introduce a national corps of undergraduate tutors to improve literacy and numeracy in schools.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, has called for a national corps of undergraduate tutors to help pupils improve their literacy and numeracy in school.
He said:
Every August we accept a grand illusion that GCSEs are a level playing field.
In reality, they are a mirror of the deeply divided society we’ve created, a measure of how much extra support students receive as much as their academic capability.
Stark socio-economic divides in GCSE results are a legacy of the Covid disruption and the crisis in school absenteeism which threaten to scar a whole generation.”
Prof Elliot Major added that competition for the most selective sixth forms will be “fiercer than ever” this year as more families may seek out state sector places after the VAT change on private school fees introduced in January.
The Government is “tackling” the barriers to better grades, said the education minister Catherine McKinnell after she was asked why white working-class children are “doing so badly”.
McKinnell said the question was a “really profound” one and that underachievement in that demographic “has persisted over many years”.
She told Times Radio:
We’ve seen there have been some improvements in our school system in the last decade, there have been over 30 years improvements in our school system.
But this challenge has persisted, which is why we are very focused on tackling child poverty in the early years.
We’re extending free school meals to (an) additional half a million children.
We’re investing in free breakfast clubs to make sure that children get that really good start to the day, both from a socialised perspective, but also food.
So, we are tackling what we see are the barriers that are holding young people back, and also making sure that they want to be in school as well.”
Nearly 100,000 year 11 pupils will receive their GCSE results through a government app this year.
Pupils in the Greater Manchester and the West Midlands combined authority areas will be the first to trial the app, called Education Record, which automatically collates their key information and exam results.
Alongside receiving their GCSE results through the app today, pupils can enrol for a college course or an apprenticeship with an employer without needing to bring physical copies of their qualifications or ID.
Using the app, pupils can share their information with a sixth form, college or training provider. This will then automatically share their unique learner number, date of birth, sex, address, GCSE results, school information, financial and learning support needs.
According to the Department For Education the digital record app could collectively save schools and colleges up to £30 million per year in admin costs if fully rolled out.
Today’s results are likely to “expose entrenched inequalities in our education system,” Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary warns.
She said:
Huge congratulations to everyone receiving their results today – you should be incredibly proud of what you’ve achieved. To the brilliant teachers, school and college staff, and parents who have been there every step of the way, thank you for your unwavering support.
These young people moved from primary to secondary school right in the midst of the pandemic, showing remarkable resilience despite the disruption to those crucial years of education. Their options now are better than ever, whether it’s A levels, T Levels, or an apprenticeship.
While it’s a moment to celebrate, today’s results will expose the inequalities that are entrenched in our education system. Too many young people continue to have their life chances defined by their background and where they live, and while we are beginning to see promising signs in critical areas like attendance and teacher recruitment, I am absolutely determined to deliver on our Plan for Change and truly break the link between background and success once and for all.”
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland await grades
Good morning and welcome to our GCSE results day blog.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are nervously awaiting their grades today.
Last year, the aftermath of the Covid pandemic was squeezed out of results as 16-year-olds received grades more similar to pre-pandemic levels in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Overall, the top grade 9 was awarded to 5.1% of the more than 5m courses taken by 16-year-olds in England, a fraction better than in 2023.
The proportion of A*s and As awarded to 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland dropped from 35.1% to 31%, and Cs or above from 87% to 82.4%.
In Wales, the top A* and A grades for 16-year-olds dipped from 22% in 2023 to 19.4%, and the proportion of Cs from 65.6% to 63.2%, which was lower than in 2019.
This year’s GCSEs are for pupils who possibly got the rough end of the Covid stick: their final year at primary school and first year of secondary (key transition point) disrupted, Sats cancelled, mental health and special needs increased, etc.
Stay with us as we look at whether the overall 9-4 pass rates are affected in English and maths, as well as if girls’ overall results dip again (previous research suggests girls came out of Covid-era school closures worse off), and any unusually bumpy results in individual subjects, and resits.
