Around 500 island’s students received their A-level results yesterday.

Sixth formers from secondary schools and pupils at University College Isle of Man (UCM) found out how they had done, with the pass rate at A-level grades A* to C was 67%.

The overall level 3 pass rate, which is A-level grades A* to E, was 97%.

The percentage of passes at higher grades, A-level grades A* to B, was 41%.

The year group is the first to be unaffected by Covid during their two years of sixth form.

This year the pass rates are the lowest in at least six years.

Comparing those figures with last year’s results, percentage of passes at higher grades in 2022, A-level grades A* to B, was 51.4%. This is more than 10% down.

The general pass rate in 2022, A* to E, was 98.8%. This year there is a decrease of 1.8%.

The department has said early indications showed that around two-thirds of island students receiving level 3 qualifications intend to further their education by enrolling on degree courses at UCM or off-island universities.

It added the trend of increasing numbers of 18-year-old education leavers opting for full time employment on completion of their Level 3 studies was expected to continue this year.

Some students from Ballakermeen had been sent their results via email a day early by mistake. The school said emails had accidentally been sent early and pupils were asked to delete and disregard them.

There is an embargo on the results until 8am Thursday, in line with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Department of Education said it was a ‘simple human error’.

We went along to Ballakermeen to speak to some of the students receiving their results.

Matthew Ashley, 18, studied ICT, economics and maths at sixth form.

He said: ‘I’m happy, I got what I needed to get into Keele University to study digital media and communications.’

Cormac Ewan has been accepted into the University of Oxford to study engineering.

He said: ‘It was quite a big step up [from GCSE to A-level], even though we were doing fewer subjects, but I think the workload has changed and it’s much more specific and a lot more content.

‘Being at Ballakermeen all the teachers are very friendly and its a nice step up.

‘I’m going to enjoy myself for a little bit, continue working and then get myself ready to go [to University of Oxford].’

Conor Harper and Tom Plastow both got into their first choice of university and will both be studying physics.

Conor is heading to the University of Manchester. Tom has been accepted in to the University of Edinburgh.

Comparing the difference between GCSE results day and A-level results day, Conor said: ‘The GCSE results in the Isle of Man especially don’t really matter as much because you don’t have to get in to sixth form per se, you just need enough grades, meanwhile the A-level results actually count for which university you’re able to go to.

‘Today feels a lot more important’.

Tom added: ‘Today is much more stressful but it all works out!’

Grace Mitchell and Sophie Hawley said they were both ‘over the moon’ with their results.

Grace is going to the Northumbria University to study primary education.

Sophie is set to go to University of Huddersfield to study podiatry.

Sophie said: ‘I got A, B, C, which is a couple grades above what I needed.

Grace said: ‘I got A, B, B, which is also more than I needed so I’m happy with that. ‘

When asked whether they’re considering coming back to the Isle of Man after university, Sophie said: ‘I’ll stay across for a few years I think.’

Grace added: ‘I think with me I’ve got placements at university and I’ve done work experience over here so I’ll see what my placements are like in the UK and decide which one I see more for me.’

Ballakermeen High School’s director of sixth form, Richard Karran, said, as expected, the results were down from previous years and he described it as a ‘claw back’.

He said: ‘There’s been a downturn in results, and we knew that was going to happen nationally.

‘What they’ve done is, well I call it “claw back” to the students.

‘We had such an inflation during the Covid years, a significant inflation, that was reported, but I’m not sure people outside of education realised how significant it was.

‘So to get it back to normal what they’ve had to do is claw it back into 50% bunches if you like, so they reduced the grades last year and really reduced the grades this year.

‘We’ve actually seen it and felt it a little more this year, because we have a very talented year group, and I was expecting the grades to be very high, but I knew they weren’t going to be as high as they probably would’ve been because of this claw back, but they really have gone to town with that.

‘Part of me feels that it is a little unfair on the students because if we actually go back two years to when these students joined the sixth form, they were coming in on predicted grades.

‘Everyone knows those predicted grades were higher. Therefore a lot of people got into sixth form that academically may or may have struggled with the challenge of sixth form study.

‘There was a lot of students taking the exams this year who maybe were a little academically weaker than normal.

I feel it’s very difficult and very harsh of the exam boards to pull the grades so low because those students were struggling anyway. I find that a bit hard.

‘However, the Isle of Man employment sector have been very kind with some of their apprenticeships and they’ve been really understanding, the UCM is always great, they work so closely with us and have been fantastic and the universities in England I’ve been so impressed with.

‘If I’m not impressed with the exam boards, which I’m not, I am very impressed with the universities who have really adjusted their offers.

‘For example on Wednesday we had 27 students who on face value didn’t get into their first or second choice university, but when we woke up this morning [Thursday] there was hardly any of them who hadn’t got in.

‘The universities had lowered their offers and I think that’s really kind and the right thing to do.

‘My conclusion to this year is it’s disappointing because I wished to have seen this particular year group judged under normal circumstances because they’re an amazing group and I love working with them, but I’m happy that we’ve got to 11.30am and pretty much everyone’s got to where they want to go.

‘I’m now just very excited that this year group are going to go out and have a normal experience, whether it’s apprenticeships, UCM, universities, for the first time in a long time they’re going to get to live a normal life, and I think that’s great!’

When asked about the mistake that led to students receiving their results a day early, Mr Karran said: ‘There was an error. The situation is that some of the students had forgotten their log in details, and what happened was there was an email sent out to remind students of them log ins and unfortunately, as the case was, those students were sent the wrong email and it’s as simple as that.

‘I think the way the students reacted was extraordinary. There was so little posted by students on social media, they took the school’s advice to delete the email very seriously.

‘They’re just a brilliant year group and they supported the school at a time where the school did something the school has never done before in terms of erroneous action, and I think that’s fantastic.

‘It hasn’t hindered them in any way. It hasn’t given them any advantage in any way.

‘Of course I would’ve liked to be there when they found out their results but I personally pride myself on supporting the kids as much as I can and I wasn’t there for them and wasn’t allowed to talk to them because of the embargo.

‘They’ve reacted so well to everything, including yesterday’s incident, they’re just fantastic.’

Those sitting their GCSEs will find out how they’ve done next week (Thursday August 24).