Teachers win praise for helping students with record GCSE results

Praise was given to teachers and students today as GCSE results saw another bumper crop of top grades.

John Cridland, deputy director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said: "Students and teachers deserve our congratulations on these results. GCSEs are important qualifications that employers use to gauge someone's grasp of the fundamentals after eleven years at school."

There was a record pass rate for those who received their results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - it reached 98.4 per cent, up 1.4 per cent on 2007.

And the top A and A* grades made up 20.7 per cent of results.

Mr Cridland also invited students and teachers to "take a fresh look at what science has to offer", reiterating calls made by the CBI last week to ensure more people study separate physics, chemistry and biology GCSEs.