Students at City of York Council's sixth forms are celebrating their success in this year's A-level examinations today (Thursday, 14 August).

Provisional results show a record number of A level passes and over 95 per cent of examinations graded between A and E. The results also show that the number of examinations given a top grade of A, B or C has increased to over 69 per cent with the average points score also increasing significantly to 6.5 (from 6.2 last year).

This year also saw a record number of A-level entries in York's four post-16 schools with pupils being entered for over 1250 examinations at A Level, an increase of 112 since last year.

Patrick Scott, the council's director of education and leisure, said: "I would like to congratulate all young people and schools on their achievement this year. Once again, York pupils have produced an excellent set of A-level results which continue to improve year after year.

"I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of students and teachers and the support of parents and governors. Although there is a lot more to education than mere statistics and tables it is good to see that York schools are continuing to do the very best for children and young people in the city."

KEY RESULTS A level pass rate of 95.2% (98.2% last year) A-C% of 69.2% (65.8% last year) Average points score of 6.5 (6.2 last year) 1258 exam entries (1146 last year) 1198 exam entries graded A-E (1125 last year)