Image source, Parliament

Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green has described the grading system as a "fiasco" that has caused "anxiety" for pupils and parents.

"I wholeheartedly congratulate those young people who have received the grades they deserve after working so hard," she says.

"But across the country, many young people will be opening their results today to find grades which undermine their work and their potential."

Referencing fears - denied by exam boards - that the moderation system could have greater impact on poorer areas, she added: "It is a huge injustice that pupils will see their results downgraded just because of their postcode."

She vowed to assess results when they are fully published and urged ministers to act urgently to correct any unjust grades.

Image source, PA Media

More than a third of grades have been downgraded in Northern Ireland, figures show.

But the proportion of A* to A grades awarded to A-level pupils has risen by 2.3% and pupil performance has improved across all grades.

In Northern Ireland, A-level grades were based on previous AS results, resit data and teachers' predicted grades for their students.

Londonderry principal Martine Mulhern told BBC Radio Foyle she feared her school would be inundated with students appealing grades, which could potentially disrupt reopening plans.

"I have no idea how we find the time to do both the way we really want to," she said.

In one case, the St Cecilia's College principal said a teacher of one of her best performing subjects predicted a C grade for three students.

“One got a D, one got an E, and one got a U – how do I even begin to explain that?"

Kathy Crewe-Read, head teacher at Wolverhampton Grammar, an independent fee-paying school, said it had been a "disappointing day" for many of her students.

She said this year's cohort had been "particularly clever" because the school's governors had given away a significant number of free places to celebrate its 500th anniversary.

"They got brilliant GCSE grades and we expected them to go on to get brilliant A-level grades," she told the BBC.

Ms Crewe-Read said 56% were predicted A*s and As - but only 41% were awarded these grades.

“Today should be about individual students receiving the results that their efforts deserve - and regrettably that isn’t the case," she added.

Colin Peaks, principal at Wilberforce Sixth Form College in Hull, said many of his students had been left in tears after receiving lower results than expected.

He told the BBC there were "anomalies" of grades "that just do not make sense to me".

“In my 22 years' teaching I’ve never seen such a negative feeling," he said.

“I think you’re going to see lots of appeals but I think that leads to a bigger rethink. If we’re seeing this across the board that can’t be right."

Branwen Jeffreys
Education Editor

This is a system that has never been tried before ever.

A system that has been created at the last minute in this crisis.

The teachers have been asked to estimate a grade for each student for each individual subject, then they have been asked to rank them from top to bottom - so say in maths, you would have students in position one, down to position 60.

That all went off to the exam boards, the exam boards then put that into a bit of statistical modelling which looked at the school or college's results over the last three years, and also the national results.

So if a college put in estimates that the regulator decided were slightly out of kilter - or too high - they have been adjusted down.

Although the national picture is quite stable we have seen quite a lot of volatility. The Sixth Form College Association is already saying that around a third of its principals say they've had results downgraded in a way which does not reflect results in recent years.

They are questioning the model entirely.

Image source, Getty Images

We brought you news from Wales earlier that there had been a record level of A* grades.

But we can now tell you that data from Qualifications Wales shows that more than 42% of A-level grades in Wales have been downgraded from the scores predicted by schools and colleges.

The results show that 5.8% of students have been awarded final results that are not within one grade of their predicted scores.

Unlike in England, mock exams cannot be used to appeal grades - but the Welsh government announced yesterday that AS-level grades could be used for final grades if they were higher. This should be done automatically, and "as soon as possible".

One of the options available to students in England disappointed with their results today is to sit exams in the autumn.

But for some students, heading to the exam hall after months away from education does not feel like an attractive prospect.

Gabriel from Banbury, Oxfordshire, told BBC Radio 5 Live it would be "unrealistic to expect us to take [exams] in a few months' time".

We reported earlier comments by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who told the BBC that 90% of A-level students in England would either receive their grade predicted by teachers or be within one grade of it.

But we've now been told by the Department for Education this figure is in fact 97%.

A spokesman was not able to say why Mr Williamson got it wrong.

There continues to be strong reaction to results at some institutions this morning.

Sarah, the head of a sixth-form in west London, called radio staion LBC to say she was "disgusted" after finding her entire A-level biology class had been downgraded by two grades.

She added that for one medical course, nine pupils who were predicted a C have been downgraded to a U.

"What has happened to swathes of my students is just cruel, disgusting and absolutely inhumane," she says.

"I've been fielding phone calls from students and parents in tears this morning," she adds.

"I'm just taking call after call from students who have not got into top universities. These are students that have worked really hard, often first generation going to university in their family.

"They have places offered at UCL, LSE, Cambridge, universities which are really hard to get into in the first place.

"They are now finding out that they've lost those places because their grades have been downgraded so much."

Unlike A-levels, many vocational courses are regularly assessed throughout, making final grades a little easier to predict.

But pupils studying for BTecs and other qualifications still had a nervous wait to find out their final results today.

Mia, from Sunderland College, opened her results live on the BBC News Channel.

She got three distinctions - securing her a place at Durham University to study primary education.

She admits her course in children’s play, learning and development was "a lot harder" with less face-to-face contact with children, but is relieved to have got into her chosen university.

A-level students have been struggling to log on to the Ucas website after it crashed due to "technical issues".

Pupils took to social media this morning to complain about not being able to access the "track" section of the website - leaving thousands unable to find out whether they got the grades needed to head to university.

Responding to frustrated students the admissions service tweeted: "Ucas Track is now running as usual, we're really sorry it was running slowly. We're here to help if you need us."

Hywel Griffith
BBC News' Wales Correspondent

There is a record level of A* grades in Wales but on average grades have been lowered by the adjustment system.

Results show that 94.2% of students in Wales have been awarded final results within one grade of their predicted score, reflecting the wider UK picture.

Last night the Welsh government announced that students could use their AS-level result instead if they were better, with the adjustment to be made automatically “as soon as possible”, according to Qualifications Wales.

The AS-level assessment is still part of the A-level in Wales, and was used in determining 40% of the predicted scores.

Overall there has been a 1% increase in the number of candidates receiving grades A*-E grades at A-level compared to last year, with 10.8% of students receiving A* grades compared to 9.1% in 2019.

More boys got A* grades than girls, but girls outperformed boys at all other grade levels.

Welsh Education Minister Kirsty Williams told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Students in Wales, and prospective employers and universities across the UK, can be assured that their A-level grades reflect their work and externally assessed exams.”

You can find the BBC Wales live page here.

Image source, PA Media

There's been more reaction as it is revealed more than a third of this year's A-level entries in England have been lowered by at least one full grade.

There is "deep frustration" in schools about the confusion caused by late changes to the results system, Geoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union has warned.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association has called the system for calculating A-level grades, "flawed and unreliable" after almost all colleges said grades were lower or much lower than predicted.

And a third of college principals reported results lower or "dramatically lower" than their historic exam performance.

Read more from our education correspondent Sean Coughlan here.

Image source, Reuters

Head teachers are warning of "volatility" in this year's A-level results and that some lowered grades seem to be "unfair and unfathomable".

It comes as figures showed 36% of entries in England had a lower grade than teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades, in results for exams cancelled by the pandemic.

Overall results, across England, Northern Ireland and Wales, show higher A* and A grades this year.

Read more here.

More than a third of A-level entries in England were lowered by one full grade as part of a moderation process due to cancelled exams, Ofqual said.

New figures just released showed 36% of entries were downgraded by one grade compared with teacher predictions.

Around 3% of entries were downgraded by two grades, while 2% saw final grades increase over predictions.

Exam boards claim analysis to be published later will show no bias on grounds of either ethnicity, gender or socio-economics.

Figures just released show this year's A-level results could have one of the highest-ever proportions of top A* and A grades.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, almost one in 10 entries, 9%, were A* - up from 7.8% in 2019.

Overall, more than one in four entries - around 27.9% - were A* and A - up from 25.5% last year.

Around 78.4% of entries were A*-C - up from 75.8% in 2019.

As in other parts of the UK, there is widespread concern in Northern Ireland about the way grades are being awarded.

Results are based on predicted grades from teachers, which have been standardised by the exams board - but some schools are worried their grades have been reduced.

Jo McColgan, headteacher at Ashfield Boys' School in Belfast, said overall he was happy with the results for his school.

"They're pretty much what we had predicted," he told the BBC.

However, he said he was aware of other schools where grades had dropped as much as 20%.

“That to me just can’t be right," he said.

“We’ve got to engage with the people who know these students best and that’s the teachers.”

Image source, PA Media

• England: The key information for A-levels and GCSEs will be how pupils are ranked by their school, and results in their schools and colleges in previous years. Plus there will be a "triple lock" for students, meaning they can receive whatever is the highest grade out of their estimated grade, an autumn written exam or a mock exam, dependent on a successful appeal through a school. Vocational qualifications will have estimated results for some courses, but not the same "triple lock"
• Scotland has switched to using teachers' predicted grades
• Wales has promised students that A-level results will not be lower than their AS-level results.
• Northern Ireland results will be based on predicted grades from schools, which have been standardised by the exams board

Image source, Getty Images

Vocational students are also receiving results across England, Wales and Northern Ireland today.

Students taking BTec courses in subjects like health and social care, electrical installation, and finance will now face entering an uncertain job market.

But unlike A-levels, some vocational students say that continuous assessments throughout their course has made them feel less pressure during the pandemic.

And many vocational students will progress to university too - about 20% of university students in England are accepted after studying only BTecs, and another 10% are accepted into higher education with a combination of A-levels and BTecs.

Read more here.