THOUSANDS of Bolton youngsters were among a record number of students who gained top marks in their GCSEs.

The proportion of entries awarded a C or better rose from 58.1 per cent to 59.2 per cent, while there was a 0.7 per cent rise in the number of candidates being awarded As and Bs.

The A* to G-grade pass rate stood at 96.7 per cent but the overall pass rate across the country dropped 0.1 per cent to 96.5 per cent when new vocational courses were taken into account.

At Canon Slade School in Bolton, 81 per cent of pupils gained five or more A* to C grades for the third year running, and almost all 263 candidates achieved at least five A* to G passes. Today, many pupils were celebrating gaining 11 or more A* grades.

But the gap between the best and worst performers has widened.

Concerns were being raised today about performance in maths and English as fewer than six in 10 pupils gained at least a grade C in the two subjects.

The overall pass rate for English, at grades A*-G, dropped by 0.4 per cent to 98.3 per cent this year.

In maths, the pass rate overall improved slightly to reach 96 per cent.

Boys appeared to have gained slightly on the girls in the GCSE results as they managed to close the gap at A* to C-grade level by 0.4 per cent. But they still lagged behind girls by 8.4 per cent across all traditional subjects.

In English -- traditionally a female-dominated subject -- the proportion of boys' A*-to-C grades went up by 0.5 per cent, while the figure for girls fell by 0.3 per cent on last year.

Subjects such as physical education, religious studies and history, as well as maths and English, gained in popularity.

The most spectacular rise was seen in the citizenship course, worth half a GCSE. The appeal of learning about human rights and the role of the media in modern society spurred a 334 per cent jump in the number of candidates.

French entries dropped 3.9 per cent from 331,089 to 318,095, while German declined 2.9 per cent from 125,663 to 122,023.