Image source, Loughborough College

On a visit to Loughborough College, chief executive of the Association of Colleges David Hughes rejected any suggestion that grade inflation might cast doubts about this year's results.

“I think that’s misplaced and really unfair," he said.

“Young people have worked hard. They’ve had a really difficult 16,17 months.

"They’ve been assessed and the results are really sound for them and their abilities.”

Image source, Handout

Samuel Dinnage will now study acting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire after achieving a distinction in his UAL Level 4 professional diploma in performance at Gower College in Swansea.

He told BBC Wales it was a "nice surprise" because, unlike his friends, he "did not know what grade he would get".

For Samuel, the pandemic made studying performance very "different".

"We were acting on Zoom… I had to use a lot of the wi-fi at home," he explained.

"We didn't have an audience for our final show."

After three years of applying to drama schools, his result had made him "really happy and confident" and he is "looking forward to the next steps".

Image source, Handout

Fellow student Eleri Thomas is heading to Cardiff University to study history after securing three A* grades in history, sociology and law.

The 18-year-old, from Loughor, Swansea, described the past year as "weird".

"Sometimes it has been a bit more challenging because you don't get the support of your friends in the classroom when we're online," she told BBC Wales.

"But there have been advantages because we have been able to contact our teachers from home and not necessarily have to just rely on ourselves.

"In terms of having these provisional results, I think it helped eased my stress a lot."

Image source, UK Parliament

The chair of the Commons Education Select Committee said he feared a "hard rock cake of grade inflation" had been baked into exam results following the news that the proportion of top grades awarded at A-level in England, Northern Ireland and Wales reached record levels this year.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon told BBC Radio 4's The World at One it was important next year's exams addressed the issue, potentially by pegging marks between those achieved in 2019 and 2020.

"But I do think in the long-term, because of the huge increase in As and A*s, that we need to look at our exam system in general."

Image source, PA Media

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said he can't remember the results of his A-levels.

As hundreds of thousands of students received their grades, Williamson vividly recalled the day 27 years ago when he received his results.

But pressed on what they actually were, he insisted his memory failed him, although he acknowledged he did not get top marks.

"I didn't get three A*s, it's fair to say," he said when pressed by LBC's Nick Ferrari.

"I have forgotten, it's so long ago. It's 27 years ago. "You probably can't remember what was happening last weekend."

Earlier, he recounted how he went to his sixth form college in Scarborough to pick up the envelope with his grades.

He recalled his "absolute delight" when he saw the results and realised "all my dreams of doing social science at Bradford University" had been achieved.

Hywel Griffith
BBC News' Wales Correspondent

Image source, Coleg y Cymoedd

Ciara Bibey is an A-level student at Coleg y Cymoedd, Nantgarw, south Wales.

She is very proud to have received two A*s and two Bs in biology, chemistry, psychology and the Welsh Baccalaureate while working part-time at McDonald's.

"Trying to balance work and studies at the same time was really difficult, but I managed to do so," she says.

"I think we all deserve the grades. The majority of our learning was online and we didn't get that in-person teaching experience, so it was very difficult."

Nearly half of this year's A-level grades were top A* and A grades in Wales, official results show.

Reality Check

Across the board, many more A-level pupils have been awarded the highest A and A* grades this year than last.

But the increase – from 39% in 2020 to 45% this year – has not been spread evenly, with bigger gains for private school students in England.

Ofqual, the exams regulator for England, produced an analysis showing 70% of pupils at independent schools achieved an A or higher compared with 57% at selective state schools, 42% of pupils at academies, 39% at other comprehensives.

And their improvements on last year were considerably bigger too.

The share of private school pupils achieving an A or higher rose by 9.3 percentage points on last year compared with a 5.7 percentage point increase for academy pupils, 6.2 at other comprehensives and a 3.8 rise for pupils at sixth form colleges.

Education Datalab, a think tank, suggests this might be partly because teacher-assessed grades are influenced more by high prior attainment and there are disproportionately more of these pupils in independent schools.

The pupils who missed out this year, but may have achieved higher marks under the usual exam system, will be those who don’t perform well throughout the year but manage to pull it out the bag on exam day.

Reporting by Rachel Schraer

Will Covid disruption be taken into account for re-takes?published at 12:58 British Summer Time 10 August 2021

12:58 BST 10 August 2021

If my daughter wants to re-take her A-levels, will the exam boards take into account that she did not complete the full curriculum due to the pandemic? - James Pritchett, Salisbury

Eddie Playfair from the Association of Colleges says:

If your daughter chooses to retake in the autumn, the exam papers will be pretty much as in a normal year, so it is possible that she may be questioned on content she might not have covered.

If she re-takes next summer, the position is likely to be very similar, although there will probably be some measures taken to mitigate for some of the disruption - in different ways for different subjects.

The details of these changes are still being finalised but the Department for Education has suggested this may include some optional elements, advance notice of topics to be examined and additional support with formulas and equation sheets.

Find out the answers to more common queries and send in your own questions

Lucy Whyte
BBC Scotland education correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Pupils across Scotland have had confirmation of their grades for their National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications.

The official texts from the Scottish Qualifications Authority gave pupils the results but they won't be a surprise.

Exams were cancelled again this year so their results are based on school assessments and teacher judgements, while the SQA sampled work from different schools for "quality assurance".

This all happened before the end of June so the results won't be new to the young people.

So what do the statistics tell us?

Read more here.

Image source, Peter Symonds College

Students at Peter Symonds College in Winchester, Hampshire, have hit back at the idea that their results could be devalued this exam season.

“This year is a better representation of our abilities - you can have a bad day in an exam - we’ve worked really hard all year,” Millie says.

Natasha adds: "It would be really frustrating if people just focus on grade inflation - people have really struggled this year and no-one should be made to feel their grade is not worth it."

Image source, PA Media

Thank you for joining our live coverage of A-level results day.

Here is a recap of the main developments so far today:

• Top grades for A-level results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland have reached a record high - with 44.8% getting A* or A grades. This second year of replacement results, after exams were cancelled, has seen even higher results than last year when 38.5% achieved top grades
• The 2021 A-level results follow last year's chaos when results were initially calculated based on an algorithm
• Among those celebrating are twin brothers from east London who gained places at Oxford and Cambridge universities after achieving top A-level grades. Emmanuel and Ebenezer Boakye managed a combined six A*s and one A at Hackney's Mossbourne Community Academy
• Some BTec students are also getting their results today, with marks also being given on Thursday
• In Scotland, Highers, National 5s and Advanced Highers results are being confirmed, having already been decided by teachers
• The percentage of pupils achieving A grades in Scotland hit a record high this year, though the pass rate for school qualifications dropped slightly

Image source, Loughborough College

Tom got his highest scores in his engineering BTec, which is worth two A-levels.

He also received two A*s in his A-level subjects of maths and physics.

He now faces a dilemma of taking up his university place or possibly doing a degree apprenticeship in engineering. He’s on the reserve list and expects an email later today.

Tom says he is really torn and feels like he has a million things to consider.

“There are certainly a lot of benefits to an apprenticeship - with the degree being paid for and you get a salary and industry experience. I’m not entirely sure yet.”

While this year has been difficult and online learning was a challenge, the Loughborough College student thinks the teachers did a good job in helping students and the system was fair.

We've got some new pictures in from results days across the UK as students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level and BTec grades.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, EPA

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Michael Cooper/PA Media

If you think a grade is wrong, you can first ask your school or college to check whether it has made a mistake.

If that's the case, a new grade can be sent to the exam board, which will decide what to do.

If the school or college confirms the grade but you still believe it is incorrect, then you can ask it to submit an appeal on your behalf.

The exam board may correct it, although any new grade could be higher or lower than the one given on results day.

There are deadlines for appeals and in Wales, external and Northern Ireland, external the process is slightly different – we’ve explained it all here.

A record number of students have been accepted onto UK degree courses this year, figures from admissions service Ucas have shown.

So what can students heading to university this year expect?

Steve West, director of Universities UK, says they have been able to open up more following the relaxation of Covid restrictions.

He says the "vast majority" of institutions are aiming to offer face-to-face contact and a "full menu of opportunities" of extra-curricular activities through student unions.

However he says recognising the limitations of some universities, there will have to be some "high quality" blended online and in-person learning, but that there will be "much more" on-campus activity this time around; adding that he doesn't believe there isn't a case for reduced university fees.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has congratulated students receiving their results today, after "an extremely challenging year".

In a video posted on Twitter, the PM said pupils - whose exams were cancelled and replaced with teacher-assessed marks - should feel "very proud" of what they had achieved.

He also urged them to get vaccinated.

Last week, it was confirmed that 16 and 17-year-olds would be offered coronavirus jabs within weeks.

Image source, St Ronan's College

Around 25,000 pupils are receiving their results in Northern Ireland today.

The vast majority of A-levels are set by the local exam board CCEA – and 50.8% of entries have been awarded an A* or A grade.

At St Ronan’s College in Lurgan, Co Armagh, departing sixth-formers have been arriving in the school hall to pick up their envelopes.

Rebecca Archer achieved distinctions in her BTec Triple Award in Sports Science.

She says she’s “full of hope”

"This has opened up so many opportunities for me already, and I’m really excited about the next stage.”

Head Girl Fionnuala McGuinness said she was “really buzzing” to get two A*s and an A at A-level, which has confirmed her place to study International Relations and Conflict Resolution at Queen’s University Belfast.

“After such a messy year for everyone, this is just brilliant – and I hope university will be as normal as possible,” she said.

Will my exam results be less effective?published at 11:27 British Summer Time 10 August 2021

11:27 BST 10 August 2021

Will teacher assessments mean that my exam results will be less effective compared to someone who has sat their A-level or GCSE exams? - Abdullah, Birmingham

Joanne Elliott from the National Careers Service says:

Absolutely not! All that has changed is the assessment method. Teachers and tutors have been provided with guidance from exam boards on how to most effectively assess your grades.

Teachers will be asked to base your grades on work you've done during the whole of your course. It could be argued that this is much closer to what happens in the working environment, I don't know many people who have to do exams as part of their job (unless they have taken part in training)!

Read more here - and submit your own questions

Twin brothers Emmanuel and Ebenezer Boakye from east London will be heading to Oxford and Cambridge universities this autumn after receiving their A-level results at Hackney's Mossbourne Community Academy.

Emmanuel - the older brother by two minutes - got three A*s and will read English Literature at Oxford; while Ebenezer got the same number of A*s plus an A and will study Spanish and Russian at Cambridge.

They said growing up in a single-parent household in Hackney had made them determined to make something of their lives and "make their mum proud".

Emmanuel told the BBC: "It's not really sunk in yet.

"We've always had people in our corner, our mum and the school, supporting and pushing us to do it."

Despite going to different universities the pair say there will be no sibling rivalry.

"We're still going to support each other at our different universities," Ebenezer said.

You can read more here.

University clearing may be more competitive for some students this year, the boss of admissions service Ucas says.

Clare Marchant says it will still be a "good year for clearing", and predicted a record number of applicants would get places that way.

But she says: "Are there going to be hotspots potentially where it is much more competitive? Absolutely."

Clearing is how universities fill spare places, and students apply for a course through clearing after they have their results.

It is often used by students who either got different grades than they expected, or if they have changed their mind about a course.

Marchant urges students to act fast to secure a place.

You can read her advice here.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Nervous students have been opening their results on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning.

Kayleigh, a student at Wilberforce College in Hull, was pleasantly surprised by her A-level grades. She got a B in history, an A in law and an A* in criminology.

“I’m going to go to university,” she said. “I’m really, really happy. It’s just the relief!"

Lucy was also happy with her grades - 2As and an A*.

"I don't think it's settled in properly yet. I can start thinking about what's next now, it's a relief," she said.

"It's a shock that it's over and I've done it in spite of Covid. I'm quite proud."

Listen to 5 Live on the free BBC Sounds app for more reaction to results day.