GCSE results 2021: When do results come out?

GCSE results for pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be published on Thursday.

As with 2021, pupils have not sat exams. This year, teachers have been given the responsibility to award grades.

Schools decide how teachers come up with final grades. They can base their decisions on a number of different aspects, including:

Pupils were told which pieces of work counted towards their grades.

They already know the results of most of the individual pieces of work, but teachers should not have told them the final grade. In Wales, students were given their provisional grade in June, ahead of official results day.

Exam boards have been checking the schools' marking methods to make sure they follow guidance.

They may also have asked schools for a sample of their results to check that grades are not significantly out of line with previous years.

If you are disappointed with a result, you can re-take that subject in the autumn.

If you think a result is wrong, you can appeal. Grades can go up or down if they are changed.

The first step is to ask the school to review the grade as soon as possible.

If you are still unsatisfied with the school's decision, you can appeal to the exam board.

The deadline for this is 17 September - or 23 August for priority appeals.

Students who have taken BTec First are also receiving their results on Thursday.

BTecs are qualifications based on work-based skills. They can be taken in areas such as business, healthcare and engineering.

Unlike GCSEs and A-levels, BTecs are formally assessed throughout the academic year, meaning that there is more information on which to base final grades.

When Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in January that exams would be cancelled again this year, there was a mixed reaction.

The National Association of Head Teachers said the plans would avoid "the awful chaos of last year".

The Sutton Trust - an education charity - has expressed concern that teacher-assessed grades could lead to students from wealthier backgrounds getting higher marks than they would usually.

Its research - focusing on A-Level students - found that parents at less deprived schools were more likely to approach or pressure teachers about their children's grades.

The GCSE is the qualification taken by 15 and 16-year-olds to graduate from the Key Stage 4 phase of secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The grading system in England was changed from letters to numbers in 2018. The old A* was replaced by grades 9 and 8, with 7 replacing A.

The updated grades were part of a new curriculum introduced in England's schools in 2014 by the then education secretary, Michael Gove, putting far more emphasis on exams rather than coursework.

Wales kept its letter-based grading structure, while Northern Ireland opted for a mixture of letters and numbers for its grades.

Students in Scotland sit different exams. Official results will be released on 10 August, but students received their provisional results in June.

GCSEs were due to be decided by a mathematical model, known as an algorithm, but this plan was abandoned.

After a last-minute change by the government, pupils' GCSE grades were based on teachers' assessments.

The U-turn came after uproar when about 40% of A-level results were downgraded by exam regulator Ofqual.

Ofqual chair Roger Taylor told the BBC the regulator decided to "change course" after seeing the "anxiety" it had caused to young people.

Ministers are planning for exams to return next year for GCSEs, A-levels and vocational exams in England.

But, unlike in the past, pupils are likely to get told which topics will come up, to ensure no one is disadvantaged if they have been affected by Covid disruption.

Plans won't be confirmed until later this year.