Top A-level grades edge upwards

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40952125

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Top A-level grades have increased for the first time in six years, as teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland get their results.

A* and A grades were awarded to 26.3% of entries - up by 0.5 percentage points compared with last year - with boys overtaking girls in top grades.

There was a fall in the top grades for 13 subjects in England with new content and now assessed by final exams.

The number of university places allocated so far has dropped.

In A* and A grades, boys have moved ahead of girls, with 26.6% of boys getting these results compared with 26.1% of girls, reversing a 0.3% gap last year.

The Ucas university admissions body says that 416,000 places have so far been confirmed - down 2% on last year - reflecting a dip in the number of 18-year-olds in the UK.

'Buyer's market'

This is expected to mean a "buyer's market", with more options available to those looking for university places.

The number of students from European Union countries has fallen by 3% compared with last year.

Many universities, including in the prestigious Russell Group, will still have places on offer through the clearing system, which matches people looking for places with vacancies on courses.

Grenfell fire

Pupils at a secondary school close to the Grenfell Tower fire in London received their AS-level results.

Four pupils from Kensington Aldridge academy died in the fire and 50 were made homeless.

But in this year's results, more than 40% of the pupils achieved A* to B grades.

Head teacher David Benson said: "The pupils have been incredible."

Changes to the qualifications system in England mean 13 A-level subjects this year have been decided solely by final exams, with no link to coursework or AS-levels.

The national results have been kept similar to last year, with over a quarter of entries receiving top grades. The proportion of the highest A* grades has nudged up by 0.2% to 8.3%. The overall A* to E pass rate is marginally down at 97.9%.

But in those new-style A-level subjects, including history, English, psychology, physics, chemistry and biology, there were 0.7% fewer A* and A grades overall. Some 24.3% of entries attained the top grades in these subjects.

Exam boards said the fall in results reflected a lower achieving group of candidates taking these subjects, rather than the exams being made "more challenging".

In previous years, where many more candidates sat AS levels, some poorer performing pupils would have been "weeded out", said Mark Bedlow, director of regulation at exam board OCR.

He added: "We do sympathise and understand it's an anxious time for students who are the first to go into these first qualifications."

'Shot in the arm'

Head teachers' leader Geoff Barton said the end of the automatic link between A-levels and AS-levels would mean schools were increasingly likely to abandon the exam.

He bemoaned the lack of a formal staging post at the end of the first year of A-level or at AS, in which candidates were often given a "shot in the arm" by these early results.

AS-level entries have fallen by more than 40% this year, and Mr Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said he regretted this "narrowing" of options.

But the exam changes, and the move to final exams rather than modules, were defended by John Blake, head of education at the Policy Exchange think tank.

"The changes to A-levels were designed to end a culture of endlessly resitting examinations, which was as painful and time-consuming for teachers as it was for students," he said.

"It led to less teaching time and made it harder to get a proper grasp of the subject.

"We should all be pleased that it is over."

But there have been concerns from pupils who have been the first to take these revised exams.

A survey of A-level students from the Student Room website found worries about a lack of textbooks and practice papers for the new style of exams.

Schools minister Nick Gibb said: "We want everyone, regardless of background, to be able to fulfil their potential and for many, A levels are the pathway to a university degree.

"The increase in entries to facilitating subjects, those that give students the greatest choice of options at university, mean even more young people will have access to all the opportunities higher education provides.

"There has been a strong uptake in core subjects, such as maths, which continues to be the most popular A level with maths and further maths having nearly 25 per cent more entries than in 2010."

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