Analysis Highest grades are up this year but worrying regional disparities remain

Many students in England who received their A-level grades yesterday will have been happy after overall results showed an increase in the number of As and A*s, exceeding not only last year's results, but those recorded before the disruption caused by the pandemic.

- Sally Weale

Nevertheless, disparities remain between northern and southern England, and in Northern Ireland and Wales, where results fell compared with last year, as well as between private and state schools.

It is the second year in England that A-level and GCSE assessment has returned to pre-pandemic norms. Exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 after Covid closed schools for long periods, and A-level grades based on teachers' predictions led to a sharp spike in top results.

There has since been a gradual return towards 2019 norms, with a sharp fall in top A-level grades last year compared with the previous two years. Experts had warned of a possible further fall this year, to bring results back in line with 2019, but this did not materialise in England, with 9.3% of entries gaining A* grades, up on 8.6% last year, and 7.7% in 2019.