Congratulations to everyone receiving their results today in Brentwood and Ongar. These results are the culmination of two years of dedication and hard work, and I know many of you have had sleepless nights in recent days waiting for these results to come out. You were probably up at midnight refreshing your screen waiting to see if you'd got the place you wanted at the university of your choice. If you have, well done! If you haven't, don't panic. Your place is waiting for you - you just need to find it.
Looking at the broad results for our secondary schools, it seems more than 96% of exams taken have resulted in A*-E passes. This is no mean feat, and the teachers and their support staff need to be congratulated too for the huge amounts of hard work they have put in to achieving such amazing outcomes.
The Government wants everyone, regardless of background, to be able to fulfil their potential and, for many, A-levels are the pathway to a university degree.Increasing entries to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects bodes well for the future economic prosperity of our country. It will help to grow our workforce in these sectors, allowing young people to secure well-paid jobs and compete in the global jobs market of post-Brexit Britain.
Increasing the number of young women studying STEM subjects has been an important objective of the Government, so it is particularly pleasing to see that more young women are taking STEM subjects. Today’s results mean that for the first time since 2004 there are more young women than young men studying chemistry.