Record year for GCSE students

9:18pm Thursday 21st August 2008

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GCSE pupils are celebrating exam success following a record-breaking year in Bolton.

An unprecedented number of pupils have gained the benchmark of five or more A* to C grades.

And there is also an increase in the number of 16-year-olds able to count maths and English among the exams they have passed. Bolton Council’s director of children’s services, Margaret Asquith, said: “Bolton is getting better and better. "Schools are celebrating their best ever GCSE results for the third year running. Both nationally and locally, we usually see rises of a few percentage points but this year we have seen enormous improvements in many of our schools.”

The number of pupils Bolton-wide who passed five GCSEs at grades A* to C was 64 per cent, compared to 54 per cent last year. There was an increase in those who had passes in English and maths among their five, from 40 per cent to 44 per cent.