GCSE results: girls still ahead but gender gap narrows as hundreds of thousands of pupils receive grades – as it happened

Nearly a quarter of girls’ entries received one of the higher grades against around a fifth of those from boys

• Almost one in four boys in England get top grades in maths

Myles McGinley, managing director of the Cambridge OCR exam board, said more pupils are taking GCSE business studies than in previous years, describing this generation of young people as “increasingly entrepreneurial”.

He said business studies entries are a third higher than five years ago, adding: “The founders of some of the next great unicorn businesses may well be among those achieving GCSEs in business studies today.”