‘Blair’s children’ get their GCSEs

The first generation of children to be entirely educated under a Labour government received their GCSE results yesterday - and more than a fifth got A and A* grades in their subjects.

The rise in top grades was the fastest in almost two decades, but at the same time the average of GCSEs taken by each pupil dropped below eight for the first time in recent years.

These headline figures suggest that schools are cannily putting pupils forward for subjects which they know they will excel at in the hope of boosting their performance in league tables.

There is also evidence that more pupils are taking vocational courses more suited to their individual abilities, while more academically able students are taking their exams at their own pace, or else taking the eltie IGCSE, which is based on the former O Level.

Comprehensive have continued their rise in performance which began in 2002, since when they have improved their percentage of top grades at a faster rate than independent schools.

Overall, nearly two-thirds - 65.7 per cent - of all grades were a C or higher, while the number of entries from the 750,000 candidates decreased by 158,000. This fall is explained by a demographic factor - there were 6,000 less pupils this year taking the average of eight GCSEs.