Video: Region’s schools celebrate record A-levels - plus results from all schools through the day

SCHOOLS across Yorkshire are celebrating record A-level results today with an increase in the number of students achieving the top A* grade - but thousands were left in limbo after the website handling university places crashed.

A-Level results from Yorkshire’s schools will appear {http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/education,in our education section} throughout Thursday and Friday as we receive them.

Sixth forms, further education colleges and private schools across the region announced this morning that pupils had achieved their best ever exam marks, with initial figures from the region suggesting major increases in the level of A* grades being achieved.

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But the university admissions service Ucas was forced to close its Track service at 8.40am after traffic to the site quadrupled. It reopened at lunchtime.

In a statement, Ucas insisted that students’ ability to choose a clearing place will not have been affected by the closure.

“Ucase Track services have now been restored after a period of intermittent disruption for some users,” the statement said.

“The ability to choose a clearing place has not been impacted, and this function will open late afternoon as planned.”

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The website is used by students to check if they have secured their university place.

The website closure came as about 250,000 teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their A-level results.

There have been warnings nationally that the number of students achieving pass rates between A to E grades may actually decline today for the first time since the early 1980s.

Today’s results comes amid warnings that school leavers are facing the most fierce competition for places at university ever as candidates look to get into higher education before fees soar up to £9,000 a year in 2012.

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Two universities in the region, Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan, have already announced they expect to fill up today with no places left for candidates going through the clearing system.

Nationally it has been predicted more than one in 10 A-level exams will result in an A*. The top mark – awarded to candidates who achieve marks above 90 per cent – was created last year to identify the country’s most outstanding candidates.

Last summer, around eight per cent of entries achieved the top grade but education expert Prof Alan Smithers from Buckingham University said he expected this to increase in today’s results now the A* is more established.

But he warned that steps to make A-levels more rigorous could mean the overall A-E pass rates declines, for the first time since 1983.

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Prof Smithers also told the Yorkshire Post some students who exceed expectations and achieve A* unexpectedly will miss out on going to the best universities.

“The problem with the current system is that places are offered based on people’s predicted grades rather what they actually achieve.”

Headteachers and college principals across Yorkshire have paid tribute to their staff and student’s performance.

The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) is celebrating record results with almost one in five exams – 19.5 per cent – achieving the coveted A* grade, up two per cent on last year. Twelve students achieved three or more A*s with six students achieving four A*s.

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Principal Mike Gibbons said: “It has been a testing year for all A-level students, with unprecedented demand for university places, so it is gratifying to see that our students have succeeded in achieving offers from the UK’s top universities and have gained the results to take up these places.”

Wyke College, in Hull, has also celebrated exam success with 100 per cent pass rates achieved in 34 different A-level subjects and the number of A* grades almost doubling compared with last year.

Principal Richard Smith said: “The staff at Wyke show, year on year, their expertise in bringing the very best out of each and every student. “

Sheffield High School is another to announce record results. Almost a quarter of all exams sat at the independent girls school this summer resulted in an A* grade and 61 per cent were either A or A*.

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The school’s headteacher Valerie Dunsford said: “I would like to congratulate the girls on these outstanding results and university placements in a year where competition for places has been the most fierce due to the increase in university fees from 2012.”

The city’s further education colleges also achieved its best-ever results. Almost a third of exams sat at Sheffield College resulted in an A*, A or B grades.

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