10 Daily Express Friday, August 23, 2019
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Pictures: MERCURY PRESS, SWNSBy Mark ReynoldsSHE SHOOTS, SHE SCORES
A PROMISING
footballer was
celebrating her
exam results
last night –
after tackling
revision and
training at the
same time.
Manchester
City player
Anna Phillips,
16, netted 10
GCSEs.
The Bolton
School pupil
said: “I train
five times a
week and play
a match once a
week so it was
challenging to
find time to
revise.
“It was hard
to juggle, but I
managed it.”‘Tougher’ GCSEs hailed
THE number of top-grade
GCSEs rose for the second
year in a row yesterday, despite
the exams being “toughened
up” in the biggest shake-up for
a generation.
Education Secretary Gavin
Williamson hailed “a proud
day” as hundreds of thousands
of students collected their
results.
While top grades were up,
the overall pass rate – the pro-
portion of G/1 or above entries- was unchanged from last
year, at 98.3 per cent, the low-
est overall rate since 2007.
In spite of the harder exams,
more than one in five (20.8 per
cent) UK entries still earned
one of the three top grades this
year, up from 20.5 per cent last
summer.
The proportion of top grades- at least a seven or an A – is
the highest since 2015, the
second year-on-year rise in a
row, along with entries getting
at least a four or a C grade.
In total, 67.3 per cent of UK
entries scored a C/4 or above,
up from 66.9 per cent last year,
according to the Joint Council
for Qualifications.
The lead enjoyed by girls
over boys at A/7 is unchanged
from last year (6.5 percentage
points), while the gap at C/
has narrowed slightly from 9.
points to 8.8.
The number of UK entries
getting C/4 or above in English
and maths rose slightly sincelast year. Sixty-two per cent
earned C/4 or above in English,
up from 61.8 per cent, and
59.6 per cent scored C/4 in
maths, up from 59.4 per cent.
Mr Williamson wished
students “all the very best”,
saying the results day “marks
the culmination of years of
hard work”.
Under England’s exams
overhaul GCSEs were made
harder, with less courseworkand exams taken at the end of
the two-year courses rather
than throughout.
Traditional A*-G grades were
replaced with a 9 to 1 system,
with nine the highest mark.
A grade four is broadly
equivalent to a C grade and a
seven to an A.
Twenty-five subjects were
marked with the new grades
for the first time this year, with
almost all courses moved to theProud
Record-holder... Jai PatelA TEN-YEAR-OLD boy has
become the youngest ever
person to get an A** in the
new GCSE maths exam.
Jai Patel smashed the 75
per cent pass rate, securing
the grade nine result.
The privately-educated
youngster, from Surbiton,
south-west London, was said
to be “over the moon”.
Proud mum Jasvir added:
“He’s our one and only.”
Hasan Patel, 16, was alsothrilled with his results. The
teenager, from Leyton, east
London, has been awarded a
£76,000 scholarship to study
history, geography, politics
and drama at Eton College.
He won the place after a
tough three-day assessment.
Hasan, who got three nines,
three eights and three sevens
in his exams, plans to use the
opportunity “to further my
academic career and build
confidence in myself”.Star performance by
maths prodigy Jai, 10