Nearly four in five (78 per cent) pupils at Caterham High School achieved five or more GCSEs at grade C or above, according to provisional results.

But fewer students (65pc) obtained five or more A*-Cs including English and maths, Redbridge Council said.

Nationwide, just over two thirds (68.8pc) of entries scored A*-C, up 0.7 percentage points on last summer, according to statistics published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ).

In total, 61.7pc of English entries scored a C or higher this year, down 1.9 percentage points from last summer – a fall thought to be the biggest in the qualification’s history.

Maths saw an opposite result, with 62.4pc of entries gaining an A*-C grade, up a massive 4.8 percentage points on 2013.

Follow live coverage of results day on our rolling blog.