The GCSE pass rate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has fallen slightly but the grades gender gap is the narrowest its been this century and top grades have edged up, today's results show.
Pictures of students delighted with their GCSE results are emerging as thousands of teenagers up and down the country find out their grades after sitting exams earlier in the summer.
The overall GCSE pass rate has remained stable - with 67.3% of all grades across England, Wales and Northern Ireland at 4/C and above. That's only very slightly down from 67.4% last year.
The gulf between girls and boys' GCSE results, however, is at its narrowest this century with boys continuing to close the gender gap.
A total of 70.2% of girls' GCSE entries were awarded at least a grade 4/C compared with 64.4% of boys' entries – a 5.8 percentage point gap, a decrease from 6.2 last year.
