Long wait for GCSE results is over for thousands of Lancashire Students
Teenagers across Lancashire are waking up to their GCSE results in a year when the proportion of top grades awarded is expected to fall.
Its a nervous morning for thousands of GCSE students across Lancashire as they prepare to collect their exam results.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are receiving grades to help them progress to sixth form, college or training.
Similar to the pattern with A-level results last week, it is expected that top GCSE grades will drop on last year as part of a plan to bring grades down to pre-pandemic levels in England this year.
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.
Some sixth forms and colleges could decide to admit pupils with lower GCSE grades on to A-level courses this summer compared with recent years.
Greater attention may be given to the induction process for this cohort of students starting sixth form next month to ensure "they cope as best they can", the leader of a headteachers' union has suggested.
Last year, more than a quarter (26.3%) of UK GCSE entries were awarded top grades, compared with 28.9% in 2021 and 26.2% in 2020.
In 2019 - the year before the pandemic - around one in five (20.8%) entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were awarded a 7/A or above.
In England, exams regulator Ofqual has said this year's GCSE results will be lower than last year and they would be similar to those in 2019.
Anthea Friend is the Deputy Head of The Deanery High School in Wigan, she says its understandable for students to be worried:
"The advice is that every single student across the whole country is going to have those same nerves and worries, even if COVID hadn't of happened pupils are always worried about their exam results.
"For the last couple of years there has been disruptions and employers and universities will need to have a good measure of that fact that every single exam year, over the last four years, has now got its individual circumstances to take account of."
She added that its important for students to not compare themselves to others:
"Just think about what your own destination is going to be, and what your aspirations are, and to be proud and think about your own achievements."