Fall in number of Welsh students gaining A levels

Schools

STUDENTS were celebrating their success in A levels exams today as almost one in four in Wales achieved the higher A* or A grades.

Some 6.5% of all candidate subject entries were awarded the A* in Wales, and 24.4% gained an A or A* grade. The corresponding figures for the UK are 8.1% and 27%.

Overall, there was a fall in the percentage of students in Wales who gained A - E grades, from 97.6% in 2009 to 97.1% this year.

There was also a slight decline in the proportion of students gaining A grades, from 25% last year to 24.4% this year.

Abergele man killed in accident after car breaks down on motorway

Jerome Tennent

TRIBUTES were paid to a man killed in a horrific accident after his car broke down in the middle of a five-carriageway motorway.

Jerome Tennent was killed when another vehicle crashed into the back of him.

The 51-year-old carer had been sitting in his stationary car and using his mobile phone to report the breakdown to police.

He was fatally injured in his Toyota Starlet saloon car on the M42 motorway near Water Orton, Warwickshire on August 2 at 11pm.

Wrexham woman finds out her Kiss holiday is in turmoil... by text

Rebecca Gilpin

A SUNSEEKER was told by text message that her dream holiday had been thrown into turmoil after the collapse of travel firm Kiss.

Rebecca Gilpin, from Cefn Mawr, Wrexham, was counting the days to her 10-day break in Dalaman, Turkey, next month, flying from Manchester.

But on Tuesday evening she received a text message from holiday company Travel Republic telling her Kiss Flights had collapsed and to check back with the tour operator.

Welsh GPs must sort out appointments system says BMA

Doctor

FAMILY doctors in Wales were urged yesterday to shake-up their appointments systems so that patients can ‘sort it out in one call’.

The demand came from doctors’ leaders who said it was time to tackle one of the main causes of complaints in the NHS.

Now Dr David Bailey, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee (GPC Wales) has written to every practice asking them to resolve the appointment system which is causing wide scale problems for doctors and patients.