It’s GCSE Results Day, and many independent schools have gained record-breaking results despite the dip in pass rates nationally
Half a million of pupils were back at school this morning to collect their GCSE results, and despite a dip in pass rates, several independent schools are celebrating top grades and record-breaking results.
Girls also maintained their lead over boys amid changes to the exam grading system, which saw three subjects ? English language, English literature and maths ? graded numerically from 9 to 1, rather than A* to G.
The gap between girls and boys has widened to 9.5 per cent, up from 8.9 per cent from last summer. However, as predicted, boys performed better in maths, with 16.5 per cent of male entries awarded at least an A / 7, compared with 14.7 per cent of females. Changes to the grading system have resulted in heavy criticism from education experts, who say that the exams are the toughest since the late 1980s. There has also been fears that the new system will affect pupils’ employability, as businesses may not understand numerical grades over the traditional lettered ones.
Find out why GCSEs have changed in our guide to the new grading system
Despite this, almost 51,000 students received the top grade of 9, with 2,000 candidates achieving 9s in all three new exams. Other subjects will be streamed into the system over the next two years.
How did independent schools do"
Manchester Grammar School

68 per cent of all grades achieve...