This Ofqual student-level equalities analysis of A-level results, shows that the gap between private and state school A-level grades has grown to its widest in the modern era as part of a record-breaking set of results in which black pupils and male pupils also received lower grades than their peers.
After a year of disruption and school closures during the pandemic, nearly 45% of A-level entries across England, Wales and Northern Ireland were awarded top grades of A or A*, up from 38% in 2020 and 25% in 2019.
But teacher-assessed grades, which replaced exams across the UK, disproportionately benefited those at independent schools, where the proportion of top grades rose nine percentage points to 70%, compared with six percentage points elsewhere.
The gender gap also reached its highest level in 10 years, with the rate of A* and As standing at 46.4% for girls versus 41.7% for boys – a further reversal of the trend seen in 2017 and 2018, when boys last outperformed girls in exams.
In maths, female pupils overtook their male peers for the first time in the proportion of A*s as the gap overall widened across all subjects other than Spanish and German.