England saw the smallest boost in top grades of all the UK nations entering students for GCSEs, new data on the results that followed this summer’s grading U-turns shows.

Following the decisions cancel exams and then to largely abandon moderation in favour of teacher-assessed grades, the proportion of entries achieving A/7 or above at GCSE rose significantly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, compared to last year.

But of these three nations, England saw the smallest boost - while Wales, still the lowest performer, closed its attainment gap with both countries.

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Following this year’s exams grading U-turn, the proportion of entries in England scoring an A/7 or above stood at 25.9 per cent - up from 20.7 per cent last year.

In Wales, 25.5 per cent of entries were awarded the top grades, compared to 18.4 per cent in 2019.

And in Northern Ireland, the proportion scoring an A/7 was 36.3 per cent, up from 30.5 per cent last year.

So Wales had the biggest boost in top grades, at 7.1 percentage points, followed by Northern Ireland, where the proportion achieving grade A/7 increased by 5.8 percentage points this year.

Of all the UK nations entering students for GCSEs, England saw the smallest boost in entries scoring top grades - at 5.2 percentage points.