Professor Becky Francis CBE, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:

“Congratulations to all pupils and schools receiving GCSE results today. These are the culmination of many years’ hard work– I hope you are proud of all you have achieved, and in extraordinarily challenging circumstances too.

“With the adjustments to grading, the number of pupils achieving a ‘standard pass’ in GCSE English and maths has fallen to 68.2%, a five percentage point drop from last year. This means there’ll be more young people required to carry on studying for these qualifications in an already stretched post-16 sector. As things stand, many are unlikely to achieve a pass even through resits.

“This has serious implications for individual students’ life chances. It is likely that those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds will be most affected, so the attainment gap must be carefully monitored, and support targeted towards pupils in greatest need of it.”