More than a fifth (22.0%) of UK entries were awarded the top grades – at least a 7 or an A grade – this year, up by 0.1 percentage points on last year, when 21.9% achieved the top grades
Hundreds of thousands of teens celebrate GCSE results today as the proportion of entries awarded top grades has risen from last year.
More than a fifth (22.0%) of UK entries were awarded the top grades – at least a 7 or an A grade – this year, up by 0.1 percentage points on last year, when 21.9% achieved the top grades.
But national figures also showed the rate scoring a decent pass returned to pre-pandemic levels. Some 67.3% of GCSE entries scored at least a 4 or a C grade – considered a “standard pass” – down from 67.4% in 2025 and the same as in 2019.
Many of the pupils who are receiving their GCSE results this summer were in Year 5 – aged nine of 10 – when schools closed because of Covid-19, meaning their secondary education was not disrupted by the height of the pandemic.
The gap in results between boys and girls also shrunk again, and is at its narrowest point this century. But the regional gap widened, with top grades between London, the best performing region, and the North East, the worst performing, widening to a record high of 10.9 percentage points, up from 10.6 last year. It is the largest gap since the start of available data in 2010.
The Department for Education on Thursday said ministers are committed to tackling “entrenched inequality, so that where you are born does not determine what you go on to achieve”.
It pointed to the Government’s Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams that work with the schools and areas where performance is weakest and its Mission North East and Mission Coastal to improve outcomes in some of our most deprived areas.
PM Andy Burnham has vowed to offer more technical routes for teenagers to improve career opportunities across the country. In one of his first acts as PM, he announced that from next year, Year 10 pupils will be able to combine core academic subjects, like English and Maths, with technical education linked to jobs available in their area.
On Thursday, he said: “Congratulations to everyone getting their GCSE results today, you should be proud of the work that got you here. Whatever your results, remember there isn’t just one route to success. We’re creating more opportunities for young people to choose the path that’s right for them, whether that’s academic or technical. Every young person should have the chance to fulfil their potential. I’ll make sure they do.”
Education Secretary Lucy Powell also promised to crack down on the “conveyor belt” of resits teenagers face if they fail to secure at least a grade 4 in English and/or maths GCSE. She said repeated resits lead to us “branding (students) as a failure” and affecting self-confidence.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That’s why we’re going to be looking at that, and I’m going to be bringing in a new stepping stone qualification, as we’re calling it, a level one… in maths and in English, so that there is an additional qualification that young people can work towards.
“And I want to work with employers to make sure that that qualification is credible, is respected, and that employers see that as sufficient or more than sufficient for young people to go on to do things like an apprenticeship in construction or health and social care.”
On regional disparities, Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: “It is a damning indictment of 21st-century Britain that where you happen to grow up has such a profound impact on your educational and life chances.
“Something is fundamentally amiss when children with the same talents and potential face such different prospects simply because of where they happen to live. England’s educational divide is a story of London increasingly pulling away from much of the rest of the country.
“But these broad regional divides conceal an even more troubling geography of opportunity: sometimes a few streets, or a different postcode, can make the difference between a life of opportunity and a life of overlooked talent.”
On the gender gap, the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys (CPRMB) said the disparities at GCSE level, and in education more widely, can mean boys struggle to thrive after leaving school.
Overall, nearly a quarter (24.4%) of girls’ GCSE entries were awarded at least a grade 7/A compared with almost a fifth of boys’ entries (19.6%) – a 4.8 percentage point gap, down from a difference of 5.1 last year. Meanwhile, 70.2% of girls’ GCSE entries were awarded at least a grade 4/C compared with 64.4% of boys’ entries – a 5.8 percentage point gap, a decrease from 6.2 last year.
CPRMB research officer Martha Lucas said: “For a lot of employment, meeting that grade four in maths and English is a barrier to finding that employment. This year, the number of male Neets (not in education, employment or training) hit more than 500,000.
“So, boys are consistently leaving school without the qualifications nor education necessary for them to thrive in adult life – get a job, be in employment – and quite frankly that desperately needs to change.”
The figures, published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), cover GCSE entries from students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A 4 is broadly equivalent to a C grade and a 7 is broadly equivalent to an A.