Top of the class: London students get best A-levels in country

LONDON today overtook the South East as the best-performing region in the country for A-level results.

- Rachael Burford

The capital saw 31.3 percent of students awarded an A* or A this year — up 1.3 percentage points on 2023. Some 30.8 percent scored the top grades in the South-East a rise of 0.5 percentage points.

Pupils across the capital were celebrating their record results as the proportion of A-level entries awarded the top grades also rose across the country compared with last year and remained above pre-pandemic levels.

A fall back to 2019 levels had been predicted. Every region of England also saw a year-on-year increase in the overall proportion of A-levels awarded, today’s figures show, as well as a higher proportion of A* or A grades than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019. The pandemic led to an increase in top grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments rather than exams.

The cohort of students wh o received their results today were in Year 9 when schools were shut due to Covid restrictions and they were the first year group to sit GCSEs after they were cancelled for two years in a row.