Overview
- The Joint Council for Qualifications published national figures on Thursday showing top grades (grade 7/A or above) rose to about 22.0% while the standard pass rate (grade 4/C) fell slightly to roughly 67.3%.
- Regional differences widened with London recording the highest pass rate at 71.7% and the West Midlands the lowest at 62.4%, a gap of 9.3 percentage points that has increased from last year.
- Girls continue to outperform boys at the top grades but the gap narrowed again this year with about 24.5% of girls’ entries at grade 7/A+ compared with 19.4% for boys.
- Entries for English and maths resits rose this year and nearly a quarter of resit exams were taken by candidates aged 17 or older, signalling a growing demand for second chances after results day.
- Nearly 650,000 pupils collected results this year and hundreds of local schools reported record or strong cohort performances as the Department for Education reiterated support and called for expanded academic and technical options for post‑16 study.