How top GCSE marks could drop by up to 71,000 on results day next week as pre-lockdown grading returns

Top GCSE grades could drop by up to 71,000 to reverse easy Covid marking, but more 'feel-good results' may also be on the cards, analysis suggests. However, Professor Smithers acknowledged we could Carolina Quintino from Ukraine reacts with her mum Iryna as she receives her GCSE results at the City of London Academy on August 24, 2023 in London Following the national lockdowns, exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, with teachers instead doing assessments - leading to inflated grades. Professor Smithers said that if only Wales and Northern Ireland drop their results, the reduction in top grades will only be 17,700. Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said grades of 7 and above are due to fall when pupils pick up their results this Thursday Jenna Maghaireh, Hannah Taylor, Ria Sood, Amber Malkin and Zaina Rajput celebrate after receiving their GCSE results at The Grammar School in Leeds, Yorkshire in 2022 Mitchell Riley Alex Meyer and Niall Slack who all achieved 11 A star/A's in their GCSE's at Campbell College, Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2022 Students at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School in Bristol cheer after finding out their results in 2022 And if England allows results to rise again, as it did for A-levels, the overall UK top grades could rise, rather than fall.