Tears amid the joy as hundreds get lower grades

HUNDREDS of thousands fewer top GCSE grades were handed to teens this year after efforts to bring results back down to pre-pandemic levels.

- Eleanor Busby

Disparities in results regions reveal a across significant proportion of pupils face resitting key English and maths exams after failing to score a standard pass.

Teenagers shared tearful videos on social media as they discovered their results were far lower than the predicted inflated grades they expected.

The results show a marked disparity between the scores against pupils got their mock grades.

Around 203,000 fewer top GCSE grades were awarded in England, Wales and Northern Ireland than last year. But 142,000 more top grades were awarded this summer than in 2019.