Fifth of private pupils set for top A-level grades: Video and results as they come in

Latest results

Pupils in the independent sector look set to have outperformed state school students in Yorkshire in the numbers achieving the top mark which is being awarded for the first time this year.

The disparity between the performance of schools in the public and private sector comes as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned that Britain was suffering from an "educational apartheid" which prevented large numbers of poorer young people getting to university.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) predicted that privately educated students would be three times as likely to achieve an A* as pupils in publicly funded schools.

Its research revealed that 16.5 per cent of A-level exam entries from ISC schools last year would have resulted in A*s compared with just five per cent of state school entries.

However several independent schools in Yorkshire have seen an even higher success rate in today's results.

Bradford Grammar has seen more than one-in-five of its A-level entries result in a A* while at Sheffield High School for Girls one in five of the exam papers was given the top mark.

Bootham School, in York, has seen more than half its year group achieving one A* or more while 30 per cent of students achieved four or more A* or A grades.

Greenhead College, in Huddersfield, beat the ISC predictions of just five per cent of state school exam papers getting top marks.

The sixth-form college, which had more than 800 students taking A-levels this year, saw 11 per cent of entries achieve an A*.

Nationally across all schools around one in 14 entries have been predicted to pick up the top grades.

In a speech on social mobility yesterday Mr Clegg said that new university funding rules would cut the share of university places in higher education taken by middle class children in future.

The Deputy Prime Minister said: "Increased levels of attendance at university have not translated into higher levels of social mobility.

"This is for two important reasons, one, a disproportionate number of university students come from the middle and upper classes. Two: higher education remains the primary entry route to high-quality jobs.

"This is why I feel so passionately that we need to attack the educational apartheid that currently exists between vocational and academic learning in general, and between further education and higher education in particular."

Students collecting A-level results today have been warned that they face the most competitive battle to get into higher education in 20 years after a surge in applications this year.

Universities across the region have warned that they will have fewer places on offer through the clearing system which matches students to available courses.

Higher Education Minister David Willetts has admitted that tens of thousands of young people, many of whom will have scored top grades, will be disappointed today as they miss out on their first choice university or a place altogether.

Nationally 160,000 people who applied to university did not get a place in 2009 but this year there are fears it could rise to up to 200,000.

The level of school leavers missing out on university is expected to add to the numbers of young people classed as NEET (not in employment, education or training) in the region.