5.25am EDT
05:25
Teachers’ unions are urging the government to put easing workload front and centre of plans for assessment next year, after school and college staff faced “huge pressures” grading their students.
Dr Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), said: “Whilst schools have done a tremendous job in picking up the pieces left of ministers’ last-minute decision-making, many teachers were left running on empty with teacher workload at breaking point at the end of last term. We cannot afford a repeat of this confusion and chaos for yet another year.
Roach called upon ministers and regulators to introduce a more “realistic and responsive” system next year, which would slim down subject content to reflect the disruption pupils have faced to their learning over the past five months.
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) sought to assure students of the validity of their results, encouraging them to “ignore the chat about grade inflation”, since marks have been awarded in a very different way to normal exams. “Students should be confident that they are getting the grades they deserve and that reflect the standard of achievement they have demonstrated,” he said.
Meanwhile, the University and College Union urged universities to share with staff the rewards from “record numbers of students entering higher education this year”.
Staff were offered a 1% pay rise this year, which the union says represents a real-terms pay cut. “[Employers] need to think again and demonstrate they value their workforce, otherwise we will see sustained strike action at colleges across England come autumn,” said the union’s general secretary, Jo Grady.
Responding to the 8% increase in acceptances on to nursing courses, the Royal College of Nursing England director, Patricia Marquis, said this was testament to “the high profile and professionalism of nursing staff during the pandemic”, but warned it would take time to plug staff shortages since students won’t qualify until 2024 at the earliest. “It is clear acceptance numbers are still not keeping pace with vacancies,” she said.
Updated
at 5.29am EDT
5.06am EDT
05:06
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has claimed that he cannot remember the results of his A-levels.
As hundreds of thousands of students received their A-level grades, Williamson vividly recalled the day 27 years ago when he received his results. But pressed on what they actually were, he insisted that his memory failed him, although he acknowledged he did not get top marks.
“I didn’t get three A*s, it’s fair to say,” he said when pressed by LBC’s Nick Ferrari. “I have forgotten, it is so long ago. It is 27 years ago.
You probably can’t remember what was happening last weekend.”
Earlier, however, Williamson recounted how he went to his sixth-form college in Scarborough to pick up the envelope with his grades.
He recalled his “absolute delight” when he saw the results and realised “all my dreams of doing social science at Bradford University” had been achieved.
“For a lad growing up in Scarborough, Bradford was the most exotic and exciting place in the whole world,” he said.
Updated
at 5.31am EDT
5.01am EDT
05:01
Exam results have been published in Scotland despite the exam diet being cancelled for the second year running due to the coronavirus pandemic, showing a drop in pass rates from last year.
The Scottish Qualification Authority results this year are based on teacher judgment in a system named the alternative certification model.
They show the pass rates at grades A-C for Higher was 87.3%, the Advanced Higher pass rate 90.2% and the National 5 pass rate was 85.8%. In 2020, the Higher pass rate was 89.3%, the Advanced Higher pass rate was 93.1% and the National 5 pass rate was 89.0%.
Scotland’s education secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said: “This is a strong set of results, achieved under extraordinary circumstances.
“It’s been one of the toughest academic years we’ve ever known, with the pandemic throwing significant challenges at our young people.
“So, to have this many learners receiving certificates and for the number of passes at Higher and, Advanced Higher to be so high is incredible.
“These results are testament to the hard work, resilience, and determination of learners – and to the dedication of their endlessly supportive teachers and lecturers, who have been with them every step of the way, going above and beyond to make sure pupils got the grades they deserve.
“Learners can be confident that their awards are fair, consistent, and credible. Indeed, industry representatives have made it clear how much they value this year’s qualifications.”
Updated
at 5.02am EDT
4.56am EDT
04:56
The gender gap for top grades among A-level students in England is at its highest since at least 2011, with the rate of A* and As standing at 46.4% for girls and 41.7% for boys.
This marks a gap of 4.7 points compared with 3.1 points last year and a reversal of the trend seen in the three years prior to that when boys outperformed girls in exams.
In terms of achieving an A-grade or above, boys outperformed girls in only three subjects: performing/expressive arts, German and Spanish. When it came to C grades and above, girls outperformed boys in every subject this year.
Chart showing results by gender
Updated
at 5.03am EDT
4.38am EDT
04:38
Maths, psychology, biology and chemistry were England’s most common A-level subjects, with more than 50,000 students taking each subject. Maths was the most popular subject, with more than 90,000 entrants, up 3.2% year-on-year.
There was a large increase in students taking geography, which reported a 16.4% jump in entrants, while the number of students taking psychology was up by 8.5%.
The most popular A-level subjects as a graph
Updated
at 4.44am EDT
4.36am EDT
04:36
In Wales, 99.1% of learners achieved A*-E grades, up from 97.6% in 2019. There was an increase at A* with 21.3% of candidates achieving this grade, compared with 16.3% in 2020.
The total number of A-level entries in Wales this year was 35,867, an increase of 14.5% on 2020, reversing the decreasing A-level entries since the summer of 2015.
Addressing the students, education minister Jeremy Miles said: “This year has been like no other and you’ve had to make many sacrifices. You have had to deal with so much disruption to your studies over the past 18 months, but have shown tremendous resilience and determination to continue your learning.
“While your experiences and the way in which you have been assessed have been different, the value of these qualifications is not. You can can be sure that your grades reflect your hard work throughout this year, and you fully deserve the qualifications you receive.
“Our school and college staff have also been tremendous, working incredibly hard and under a lot of pressure to deliver and mark learners’ assessments.
“The most important thing this year is that learners are able to progress to the next stage of their education, training or their work careers.”
Wales cancelled exams two months earlier than in England, which the Labour-led government said has provided more certainty for centres and learners.
There is a different appeals process. Unlike in England, learners in Wales had their provisional grades ahead of today and have had the opportunity to appeal their grades.
Updated
at 4.49am EDT
4.33am EDT
04:33
The proportion of A grades achieved by students this year was at its highest ever rate as teacher assessments replaced usual exam-based grading and the 2020 algorithmic means of assessment was scrapped.
The 2021 results tables show that 44.3% of English A level entries were awarded one of the top grades, A* or A.
This marks a 6.2 percentage points rise on last year’s results, but a massive 19.1 percentage point rise compared with the pre-pandemic exam outcomes of 2019.
A-level results interactive
Updated
at 4.45am EDT
4.32am EDT
04:32
A-level grades surge to record high after exams
Nearly 45% of A-level entries across the UK were awarded top grades in A-level results published today, a record-breaking return for students after more than a year of disruption and school closures during the pandemic.
The 44.8% in top grades in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland matched earlier predictions by university admissions officers and was lower than others had feared, following the 13 percentage point increase seen between 2019, the last time that formal exams were held, and 2020.
In Northern Ireland, 50.8% of entries were awarded A* or A, up from 31% in 2019, while in Wales the proportion awarded top grades rose by more than six percentage points compared with last year, to 48.3%.
In England alone, 44.3% of entries gained A* and A grades, compared with 38.1% in 2020. The figures also revealed that 12,945 sixth-formers in England gained three A*s, compared with 7,700 in 2020 and 3,000 in 2019. Nineteen per cent of entries were awarded A*, compared with 14% in 2020 when grades were also assessed by schools.
The rise was fuelled by a record-breaking increase in grades awarded by independent schools and centres outside the state sector, where 70% gained top grades compared with 44% in 2019. The latest figures are likely to spark further questions about the unequal distribution of grades.
There were also wide disparities in regional results. While more than 47% of entries in London and the south of England received A* or A, 39% of those in the north-east of England did so.
Overall, 88.2% of the more than 750,000 entries by 18-year-olds in England received grades C or above, little changed for 2020 when 87.5% did so.
Updated
at 4.47am EDT
4.12am EDT
04:12
Ucas figures show that 245,330 18-year-olds from across the UK have been accepted on to degree courses, up 17% on the same point last year.
The number of UK 18-year-olds taking up places has risen to 34.1%, up from 30.2% in 2020.
Overall, the total number of students accepted on to nursing courses has increased by 8% to 26,730. The figures show that 8,560 students from England have been accepted on to medicine and dentistry courses, up 23% from 6,960 on results day 2020.
Updated
at 4.49am EDT
4.08am EDT
04:08
Williamson: universities that don’t return to face-to-face teaching should charge less
Universities that do not return to face-to-face teaching this coming academic year should not be charging full fees, the education secretary said.
Gavin Williamson told Sky News: “I think if universities are not delivering what students expect then actually they shouldn’t be charging the full fees.”
Williamson said ministers would give the Office for Students – the independent regulator of higher education in England – “all the power and all the backing” in pursuing universities “that aren’t delivering enough for students that are paying their fees”.
Updated
at 5.02am EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/education/live/2021/aug/10/a-level-results-day-2021-live-hundreds-of-thousands-await-teacher-assessed-grades
