Key events
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland await grades
Mabel Banfield-Nwachi
Good morning and welcome to our GCSE results day live blog.
Today, like every year, hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland anxiously await their grades.
In 2025, there was an overall rise in grades among 16-year-olds taking GCSEs and the gap between boys and girls has narrowed to its smallest level since 2016.
Boys showed improved performances in some of the major subjects like maths and English, while girls slipped backwards in their traditionally strong subjects such as English.
The results mean that the gender gap in favour of girls is now the smallest since separate data for 16-year-olds in England was first published in 2016.
Pupils in England who were thought to have been among the worst affected by Covid bounced back in their GCSE results last year, with more achieving top grades despite the disruption of the pandemic.
The percentage of pupils who achieved a grade 7 and above was 23% in 2025, up from 22.6% in 2024. While those who achieved a grade 4 and above (pass) was 70.4%, a slight increase from 70.4% last year.
For pupils in Northern Ireland, the proportion getting A and A* – equivalent to grades 7 and above in England – rose by a full percentage point to 31.4%, while the proportion getting grades C or above went up to 63.8%.
In Wales, where letter grades are also still used, pupils getting the top grades rose to 20.1%, up from 19.8% in 2024, and those getting a C or better edged up by 0.3 percentage points to 63.8% this year.
If the GCSE results follow last week’s A-level results, it might be a bumper year for grades. The proportion of students in England gaining the highest grade of A* in A-level subjects rose to 9.7%, up from 9.4% last year, setting a new record outside the pandemic era, when exams were scrapped.
Northern Ireland was the best-performing country, with 30.7% of grades being As and A*s, followed by 29.6% in Wales and 28.7% in England.
The GCSE cohort taking exams in 2026 were in Year 5 when the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns began in 2020. They faced severe disruption during key developmental years (perhaps less so than the 2025 cohort, who were in their final year at primary school in 2020), particularly the primary-to-secondary transition period, chronic absenteeism, and mental health challenges.
Follow along as we look at whether the overall 9-4 pass rates are affected in key subjects like English and maths, as well as if girls’ overall results drop again.
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