Responding to this morning's exam results for GCSEs and vocational technical qualifications (VTQs) in England, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“We warmly congratulate students as they receive their results across a wide range of qualifications.

"These are testament to young people’s resilience following the pandemic and the hard work of themselves and of all school and college staff.

“These achievements should be celebrated and in no way diminished by the government’s decision to move back to pre-pandemic grading in England, which was always going to impact overall results. The student cohort, the context and the approach to grading has been different every year since 2019 so these results are in no way comparable with previous years.

“Yet young people’s ability to flourish and to progress in the next stage of their education or training is being hampered by government policy which imposes high stakes accountability upon schools and limits students in their choice of GCSE and VTQ qualifications.

“It is high time that school performance tables were scrapped and school leaders empowered to develop and deliver a curriculum and qualification offer that truly meets the needs of their students.”