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When are GCSE exam dates and when is results day 2025?

When are GCSE exam dates and when is results day 2025?

BBC News07-05-2025

What dates are GCSE exams and when is results day 2025?
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Exam season has begun for hundreds of thousands of GCSE students in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Here is everything you need to know.
When are the 2025 GCSE exam dates?
What happens if I miss an exam due to illness?
If you are unwell on the day of your exam, you should contact your school or college as soon as possible.
You will be asked to fill out a form for your school or college to request "special consideration" from your exam board. The simple exam tweaks that can completely change lives
What time do GCSE results come out?
GCSE results will come out on Thursday, 21 August from 08:00 BST. If you are collecting them in person, check with your school for exact timings.
Some students will get their results via a new app which will deliver grades directly to their phone from 11:00 BST on results day.
Around 95,000 pupils in Manchester and the West Midlands will be able to use the app this summer, before it is rolled out more widely.
Students in Scotland have been able to get their results via an online app since 2019. In Wales and Northern Ireland, results are usually distributed by schools and colleges.
In England, GCSEs are now graded using a numerical system from 9-1, rather than A-E as was previously the case.
Students need a 4 for a "standard pass" and 5 for a "strong pass".
In Wales and Northern Ireland, GCSEs are still graded using letters, unless an exam taken in those nations is managed by an English exam board.
What are the GCSE grade boundaries?
Grade boundaries show the minimum number of marks you need for each grade.
They are decided by examiners and published on results day. How have GCSEs in Wales changed?
How can I appeal against my GCSE results?
If you do not think your grade is right, you should first talk to your school or college.
It will contact the exam board on your behalf and ask for your marks to be reviewed.
If you still think you have been unfairly graded after a review, you can ask your school or college to appeal.
The exam board will consider whether a correction is needed.
If you are still not satisfied, you can request a review from regulator Ofqual.
The charity YoungMinds says results are not the only measure of success - and if things do not turn out as you had hoped, there are lots of other ways to help you achieve your goals.
What if I fail a GCSE exam?
You can resit any GCSE exam the following academic year.
The resits for GCSE maths and English, which are both mandatory subjects, take place from 5 November.
If you want to explore this option, you should speak to your school about the best course of action. BBC Bitesize: Options if you're unhappy with your GCSE or Nationals results
What happens after GCSEs?

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The 20 history books that everyone should read
The 20 history books that everyone should read

Telegraph

time41 minutes ago

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The 20 history books that everyone should read

Everyone should study history, and here are 20 books I think everyone should read. They are expressly not the 'best' history books ever written: no one can possibly have read the tens of thousands in English alone that would be required to begin forming such a judgment. But they are books that have greatly illuminated my understanding of history, and that in some cases took a remarkably original view of their subject. I have prized readability: no one will finish a turgid book unless forced to do so. Some are classics whose scholarship has long been superseded: but their place in historiography will never wane, and they show the regard for history of the era in which they were written. I have not included biographies or diaries, even though they often make a significant contribution to our understanding of history. The common theme of these books is that they fulfil a requirement for the successful study of history: they tell us why we are where we are. Jump to a particular era: Medieval to early modern The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (6 vols, 1776–89) by Edward Gibbon Gibbon was a formidable scholar of the classical and post-classical periods; his work stands up despite the discoveries of a further two and half centuries of scholarship. The Decline and Fall is a stunning work of literature, with superb prose, giving as good an account of the period from the first century AD to the late 16th century as you will find; and if Gibbon's reasoning about why Rome's power declined – too much decadence, and the baleful effect of Christianity – is questionable, he at least supports his arguments with evidence. He also has wonderful turns of phrase – 'the barbarian whom we condescend to style the Emperor of Morocco'. Gibbon writes about the foundation of our Western world: we must read him. by Steven Runciman This work has been as widely criticised as it has been praised, not least for its debunking of the romantic image of crusaders that had grown up in the 19th century. As in Gibbon, with which it overlaps, Runciman's history helps to describe some of the foundations of our own society, notably the continuing tension between Christianity and Islam. It is a well-researched and at times provocative book, and its great popularity owes much to the clarity with which it is written. Buy the book by Jonathan Sumption This contemporary epic has a claim to be the finest achievement by a living historian. One should read it because of the clear, reliable and deeply researched account it gives of English (and French) history in the 14th and 15th centuries, and particularly the lessons it teaches about the decline of English power. Sumption writes with a freshness and a clarity that highlight his percipience and make him easily comprehensible. Buy the book by James Anthony Froude Such is the popularity of the Tudors that there has been a tidal wave of books about them recently: some good, most mediocre, some dismal. Froude's magisterial epic, which covers 75 turbulent years from the late 1520s to the early 17th century, has an agenda: in the age of the Oxford Movement, it reasserts the righteousness of the Reformation. The section on Mary Tudor is in places so virulently rude as to be unwittingly entertaining. This is a forgotten gem. Buy the book 17th and 18th centuries by Blair Worden Tracing as it does the fissures in English society and politics over the preceding 350 years back to the civil wars of the 1640s, this book more than most tells us why we are where we are. Neither the execution of Charles I, the Restoration nor the Glorious Revolution ended anything: Worden shows us how the conflicts of the mid-17th century are still being played out. It is a revelatory and highly original book. by John Adamson The history books one most needs to read are those that prove that what one thought one knew for sure was, in fact, wrong. There were stalwart farmers from the Eastern Counties such as Cromwell who brought down Charles I: but the real motivation for the civil wars came from the aristocracy, as Adamson, with formidable research, proves. There simply is no better explanation of why the English fought themselves in the 1640s. Buy the book The History of England from the Accession of James II (5 vols, 1848–60) by Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay deals in depth with a period of just 17 years, from 1685 to 1702, the pivot being the Glorious Revolution. He has had numerous critics, not least because his is the definitive Whig history, detailing what the author regards as progress. But this was a time of modernisation and the creation of institutions, and a key epoch in history: and as well as the detail, Macaulay presents a magnificent work of literature. Buy the book by Thomas Carlyle Carlyle set out to counter what he termed 'dryasdust' historians, and although his work has been surpassed in scholarship in nearly 200 years, it remains a classic history. He did extensive research, but applied his imagination in a way no serious historian would dare today. At times, this book reads like a screenplay. It may no longer be definitive history, but is a landmark of our culture, and of our historiography. 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Dangerfield lists the badly conducted fights with the trades unions, Suffragettes, the House of Lords and the Ulster Unionists that undermined the Asquith administration; but with a wit and style that make his book outstandingly readable, and caused it to be hugely influential. It has been attacked for its analysis, but it's hard to fault its thesis. Buy the book English History 1914–1945 (1965) by AJP Taylor This was the final volume in the massive Oxford History of England, and partly because of Taylor's fame as a 'telly don', it sold more copies than all the rest put together. The book, however, has much more merit than the author's celebrity. It is a sharp picture of our country during the day before yesterday. It's both factual and provocative – and it is beautifully written. Taylor's description of Armistice Night, with couples 'copulating in shop doorways, celebrating, as it were, the triumph of life over death' is unforgettable. 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A sweet moment for refugee schoolchildren
A sweet moment for refugee schoolchildren

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timean hour ago

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A sweet moment for refugee schoolchildren

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Christmas star church in Coventry set for local listed status
Christmas star church in Coventry set for local listed status

BBC News

time2 hours ago

  • BBC News

Christmas star church in Coventry set for local listed status

A former Baptist church that has featured a distinctive Christmas star is set to be locally Hearsall Baptist Church, on Queensland Avenue in Coventry, first opened as a Sunday School in 1928 and became a church in building, which traditionally has a popular "Star of Hope" illuminated on its tower for Christmas, was nominated for locally-listed status last City Council is due to discuss the nomination at a meeting on Thursday, and a report submitted to the local authority has recommended that it endorses the listing. The listing applies to the Baptist church's original building, also known as Hearsall Church Hall, and not the modern-day church building on the same a building has locally-listed status, its heritage must be considered in any proposed redevelopment, although the move does not afford full statutory protection. 'Local identity' The church was nominated for local listing after a petition calling for the move attracted over 1000 signatures. Council officers said the Hall's "artistic and architectural value" meant the nomination should get the green added that the building also contributed to a sense of "local identity".Many respondents to the public consultation focused on their attachment to the Star of Hope, rather than the Hall itself, the report local listing would only cover the building as the star is "a moveable fixture", but the council had been made aware of a commitment from the church's new owners to ensure the star continues to be a local monument, the report said. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

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