THE waiting will be over for thousands of students across the country tomorrow when they find out the results of their GCSE exams.

The Northern Echo will have extensive coverage from schools across County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire.

As the first results are revealed tomorrow morning we will be running a live blog with reporters at schools speaking to students and teaching staff, getting all the reaction, the highs and the lows.

In addition, we will have comprehensive coverage of the national picture.

Under the biggest shake-up of exams for a generation, traditional A* to G grades have been replaced with a 9 to 1 system, with 9 the highest mark.

English and maths – key GCSEs for all teenagers – are the first to move over, with other subjects following over the next two years.

The grading switch, part of wider reforms designed to make GCSEs more rigorous and challenging, has been introduced in a bid to allow more differentiation between students, particularly among the brightest.