Ulster students celebrate GCSE success

Thousands of pupils across Northern Ireland were celebrating their GCSE results today.

Two days ahead of the release of results by exam boards in England and Wales, Ulster pupils were sitting back after scoring a 90.8% pass mark across all papers - up 0.6% on last summer.

Around 30,000 pupils sat more than 187,000 papers set by the Northern Ireland exam council, the CCEA, and in all but a couple of subjects pass rates were up. The A-star to C grades were achieved by 70.5% of pupils, up 0.9% on last year. The number of pupils who achieved A-stars was down slightly this year at 6.7%, compared to 6.8% in 2004. The number who achieved at least an A increased to 23.3% from 22.8%.

However, the full picture of achievement in Northern Ireland will not be known until the results in England and Wales are published on Thursday. The vast majority of pupils in the province sit at least one or two exams set by the English and Welsh boards - some many more.

Traditionally, Northern Ireland pupils do better at both GCSEs and A-levels than their counterparts in Britain and that is expected to be repeated again this year.

Both ministers and the CCEA were remaining silent about the results until Thursday.

But Ronnie Hassard, the principle of top ranked grammar school Ballymena Academy, said he was thrilled with the results achieved by his pupils so far.

"We are very pleased with the results, this is a school where results are traditionally strong and our expectations have been met.

"In terms of headline figures, 98% of pupils have got five A-star to C grades and most pupils have one or two results to come on Thursday and we would expect the tally to rise."

Interestingly, Mr Hassard said the traditional achievement gap between girls and boys was narrowing, with boys catching up.

He believed the increases in the rates of A-stars being achieved had reached a plateau - they could not continue to rise indefinitely, he said.

Star pupil at Ballymena Academy, so far, is Helen Byers. The 16-year-old is the only pupil to have received all her results and achieved a perfect full house of nine A-stars.