Many students jumped for joy as they received their A-levels today.
Despite national predictions that a return to pre-Covid 2019-style marking would mean lower grades for the 2023 cohort, schools and colleges in Brighton seemed largely unaffected by the changes, with some seeing record-breaking results.
At BHASVIC, the A-level pass rate of 99.5 per cent was identical to pre-pandemic years, with a record 13.2 per cent of grades at A* (4.6 per cent above national average) with just under 40 per cent at A*-A (12.7 per cent above national average).
BTEC results also match pre-pandemic outcomes with over 60 per cent of results including a distinction or distinction* (ten per cent up on the previous year).
Students from BHASVIC were asked to come in for a celebration day - dozens were chosen because of their contribution to the college rather than high grades.
While Varndean said its results compare “very favourably” with 2019 pre-pandemic levels and said they are a “testament to the hard work and talent of our wonderful students here at Varndean College”.
The overall pass rate at A level was 98 per cent with the majority of subjects achieving a 100 per cent pass rate and a quarter of students achieving A* and A.
Half of students achieved A*-B and three-quarters of students A*-C grades. Students were similarly successful in vocational courses with a 98 per cent pass rate overall, with half of students gaining the very highest grades of distinction*and distinction.
Brighton College had a record-breaking year with A*s being the most common A-level grade once again.
The college had a pre-Covid record-breaking number of 338 A* grades.
Headmaster Richard Cairns spoke of his delight: “I am so proud of our sixth-form leavers. This was one of the most diverse year groups we have ever had, containing as it did many pupils on our opening doors scholarship programme as well as several of the 23 Ukrainian refugees who joined us on similar scholarships.”
Two of those refugees, Vlad Pokoievych and Vlad Minenko celebrated achieving A*, A, B and C and A*, A and B respectively.
Vlad Minenko said: “Leaving Ukraine and seeing all the destruction brought to my homeland impacted me significantly.
“I want to develop skills that will enable me to help with the reconstruction of my country, with research and innovative design as I study mechanical engineering at Manchester.”
Vlad Pokoievych plans to go to Bath University to study a business degree.
He said: “We are safe here, but I want continually to be a reminder that elsewhere in the world people are suffering, and it is our responsibility to do as much as we can to keep that awareness alive, support where we can and be grateful for every day.
“I have been given so many opportunities at Brighton College, that even though a lot has been taken away from me, I choose to embrace that which I have been given.”
Roedean School, in Roedean Way, Brighton, saw 55.5 per cent grades at A*/A.
Some 28.2 per cent of all grades were an A*, with over half of the year group awarded at least one A* grade. Nine students achieved straight A* grades.
In 2019, 22.4 per cent of grades were A*s and 55.9 per cent were A*A.
Roedean student Millie Hoffmann has decided against the traditional university route and will head off to train to become an elite Norland nanny this autumn.
The college's graduates are well known for becoming nannies to celebrities and royal babies. Norland Nannies have been used by the Royal Family since 1892, including by King Charles III and Princess Diana for both Prince William and Prince Harry.
Molly, 18, from Brighton, who scored BBC in her A-level English language and literature, politics and psychology respectively said: “I was looking at all the uni courses with my friends in year 12, I didn't know what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to work with children.
“It was quite daunting thinking I’m not going to do what everyone else is doing and go to traditional uni but as soon as I looked into Norland I knew it was for me.”
At Eastbourne College, 50 per cent of grades achieved at A* or A represented a ten per cent increase on the pre-Covid years, compared with 39 per cent in 2019, and are the school’s best results achieved by this measure under full A-level conditions in a decade.
Private Catholic school Mayfield Girls, in Wealden, saw a 100 per cent pass rate and over half the grades awarded were A* or A.
Rosie McColl, who is headteacher at Brighton Girls, hit out at “scaremongering, unhelpful” stories about A-level results in the national media The school’s Year 13s celebrated as 92 per cent of the cohort got accepted at their first or second choice university.
The Montpelier Road school head said: “The reality is that these students faced significant disruption to their studies while working towards their GCSEs and were denied the opportunity to sit public exams two years ago.
"Throughout this doom and gloom narrative, they have shown incredible resilience and they have my complete admiration for the way in which they got on with the task at hand, working towards their goals calmly and methodically."
Lauren McLellan, from Cardinal Newman in Brighton, rushed to her friend's house with a bunch of flowers when she received her results so they could celebrate together.
She had a “little cry” on seeing her results.
She will be travelling to Australia and New Zealand in November and plans to work in restaurants.
Fellow Newman student Lottie Cashin achieved the highest-ever score at the school for maths, furthers and statistics.
West Sussex County Council said the provisional A-level results published show that the overall pass rate (grades A* to E) for West Sussex was 97.9 per cent, which was slightly above the national average of 97.2 per cent.
Nationally, the proportion of A-level entries awarded top grades is down on last year but still remains above pre-pandemic levels.
More than a quarter (27.2 per cent) of UK entries were awarded an A or A* grade, down by 9.2 percentage points on last year when 36.4 per cent achieved the top grades.
However, this was still higher than in 2019 – the last year that summer exams were taken before the pandemic – when 25.4 per cent of entries were awarded A or A* grades.
The overall pass rate – the proportion of entries graded A* to E – has fallen to 97.3 per cent this year, which is lower than in 2022 (98.4 per cent) and the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (97.6 per cent).
The A*-E pass rate is at its lowest level since 2008 when it stood at 97.2 per cent.
Ucas chief executive Clare Marchant said A-level results have been a “very positive picture” and praised this year’s cohort of students who had sat external exams for the first time.
The CEO told the Today programme there had been a slight drop in the number of students getting a place at their first choice university.
Ms Marchant said that 79 per cent of students had got their first choice at university meaning that they can “just go out and celebrate”.
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