A-level top grades fall in West Midlands but remain above pre-pandemic levels
Thousands of students across the West Midlands received their results on Thursday.
Last updated 17th Aug 2023
The proportion of A-level students in the West Midlands awarded top grades is down on last year, but still remains above pre-pandemic levels.
Thousands of students across the region received their results on Thursday.
22.9 percent of entries in the West Midlands were awarded an A or A* grades. That compares to 32.3 percent in 2022, and 22 percent in the year before the pandemic.
Shrewsbury College principal James Staniforth said he was "so proud" of his students, who are the first year group to get their A-Levels who did not do standard GCSEs.
He said his pupils have had the "hardest time", reminding them that when they started at the college, they still had to abide by Covid measures including one-way systems.
He said: "We have a record number of students who got their A-Levels today, over 800 students, and we have another 500 students getting their vocational qualifications.
"We have around 800-900 students going onto university which is a huge number.
"We have to remember, this group of students didn't do GCSEs, they got teacher-assessed grades which added up to their GCSEs. They deserve a lot of credit for the resilience they have shown."
Shrewsbury College student Tom Willis, 18, is heading off to Oxford Brookes to study Economics after getting three A grades in Biology, Chemistry and Business.
While many of his fellow students had already looked at their results online or on the college's app before heading to the Welsh Bridge campus in Priory Road, Shrewsbury, Mr Willis had decided to wait.
He said: "It felt really good to find out my results, I waited until I got here to find out what my grades were but a lot of my friends were texting me this morning with theirs.
"It's a huge relief, we didn't have proper GCSEs so it was nice to find out I'd done well. I tried my hardest and I think it has paid off."
Charlie Findlay, 18, is going off to study Maths at Warwick University after getting two A* grades in Maths and Further Maths and As in Chemistry and Physics at Shrewsbury College in Shropshire.
He said: "I revised really hard, I knew I had done well."
Nationally, the number of applicants accepted on to UK degree courses has fallen this year but it is up on 2019 - the year before the pandemic, Ucas figures show.
Ucas said 79% of 18-year-old applicants from the UK have secured their first choice, which is down from 81% last year but up from 74% in 2019.
In England, exams regulator Ofqual had said this year's A-level results would be lower than last year and they would be similar to those in 2019 as part of efforts to return to pre-pandemic grading.
It comes after Covid-19 led to an increase in top grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.
Boys have pulled ahead of girls at the top grade this year after female entries were in front for the last three years, with A* grades at 9.1% for the former compared with 8.8% for the latter.
Girls continued to outperform boys at A* and A but the gender gap has narrowed again this year.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "The proportion of students achieving the top A-level grades has fallen sharply this year, not as a result of underperformance, but because the grading system has been adjusted in the wake of the pandemic so that the distribution of grades in England is similar to 2019.
"This adjustment is a return to normality after the pandemic which necessitated the use of different approaches to grading.
"Whatever the rationale, however, it will feel like a bruising experience for many students, as well as schools and colleges which will have seen a sharp dip in top grades compared to the past three years.
"It is important to remember that these students also suffered the disruption of the pandemic, and this will have impacted particularly on those from disadvantaged backgrounds."
He added: "We would urge students who are disappointed by their grades not to panic but to talk to their teachers about the options available to them and we wish all the young people receiving their results today every success for the future."