Best-ever A-level results as more than one in four get at least an A

Pupils across Britain celebrated the strongest A-level results on record, with more than one in four achieving at least an A grade. Boys extended their lead over girls in the top grades, while a record number of students secured places on degree courses.

The Daily Mail reports that one state school run by a head known for strict discipline achieved 70 per cent A or A-star grades. The results come despite Education Secretary Lucy Powell's recent claim that disadvantaged students are being "let down" by a focus on academic subjects. The Mirror notes the record number of university acceptances.

The results raise the familiar question: are standards rising or are standards falling? Every year the grades improve, and every year someone asks whether the exams have become easier. The debate misses the point. If the system is designed to sort pupils by ability, and the sorting keeps producing more top grades, then either the cohort is getting cleverer or the sort is broken. Both can't be true at once.

Grade inflation isn't a conspiracy - it's what happens when a system optimised for participation meets a political appetite for good news. The universities know this; they have been setting their own entrance tests for years.

What to watch: whether the new government revisits the grading system, or whether the drift continues until A-levels cease to discriminate at the top end at all.