A-level results 2016: Today’s top 7 stories

As A-level results day draws to a close, Schools Week has rounded up our top stories.

1. A-level pass rates are pretty stable, but there’s something fishy going on with creative subjects

Our first take on the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) A-level figures released today explored three main findings – overall stability, a drop in the number of students taking creative subjects, including music and drama, and whether reformed A-levels were actually harder (it appears not).

2. Battle of the sexes: Boys top the tables in German and French; Girls lead the way in PE and geography

We dug into the data to reveal the trends and best stats, including gender gaps and the least popular subjects.

3. Refugee bags university place after escaping war-torn Afghanistan

While leaping A* students dominate front pages, Schools Week has delivered on its promise to report the inspirational stories of secondary modern students. 

That includes Haroon Rashid (right), who arrived in the UK at the age of 13 after a three-month journey to escape war-torn Afghanistan. Despite not being able to speak a word of English, he is now heading to Surrey university.

Other inspirational tales can be read here.

4. Why are creative subjects being shunned?

The general consensus about falling numbers of students taking subjects including music, drama, performing arts and art and design was that the EBacc was to blame. So was it? Schools Week crunched the numbers, and here’s what we found.

5. Southerners do Classics, Northerners do PE

Analysing regional A-level figures, we revealed that the most popular subjects taken by southerners and northerners did absolutely nothing to dispel the stereotypes.

6. The ups and downs – per subject

While the national picture remained stable, there was a huge amount of variation across different subjects – we’ve covered them all here.

7. Making sense of the new AS levels

Some AS levels this year were the same as last year. Others are nothing like AS levels in the past. Schools Week editor Laura McInerney disentangles the  difficulties to find meaning in the results.