The 2008 GCSE results, released today, show the overall A*-C pass rate has increased by 2.4 percentage points to 65.7 per cent and English has risen 0.7 percentage points and maths 1.1 percentage points compared to last year.

There are also encouraging trends emerging in science, where entries in Biology increased by 35.3 per cent (22,313 additional entries), Chemistry by 29.4 per cent (17, 437) and Physics by 29.1 per cent (16, 992).

In addition to the increase in entries, Chemistry recorded 94 per cent A*-C grades, closely followed by Physics with 93.5 per cent and Biology at 91.1 per cent.

Boys are showing signs of closing the attainment gap in the core subjects. This year the pass rate at A*-C for boys in English was up 0.9 percentage points, whereas for girls it was up 0.4 percentage points. In mathematics the improvement for boys was 1.2 percentage points as opposed to 1.0 percentage points for girls.

Read the full report on the DCSF website.