Despite a record-breaking GCSE results day in Bucks, new data shows the number of students achieving the highest grades has fallen this year. 

With exams suspended in 2020 and 2021 and an amended grading system last year, the coronavirus pandemic saw record grade inflation for GCSE students across the county and England as a whole.

But after Ofqal reinstated standard examination procedure this year, for the first time since the pandemic, results dropped significantly both in Buckinghamshire and on a national scale. 

Only 30 per cent of the 90,185 exams taken by GCSE students in Bucks resulted in a grade seven to nine, broadly equivalent to an A or A*.

READ MORE: Father of student found dead at Wycombe Abbey opens his daughter's GCSE results

This was a significant fall from 37.6 per cent in 2021 – the highest proportion during the pandemic.

Nationally, 21.6 per cent of exams led to a student recording a level seven or above – roughly returning to 2019 levels of 20.6 per cent, but well below the 2021 peak of 28.5 per cent.

Jo Saxton, chief regulator of Ofqual, said it now believes the process is running as it did before the pandemic.

"In terms of grading, this has been the second step in the two-step plan to get back to normal. So as far as Ofqual is concerned, the organisation is now back to normal," Dr Saxton said.