Epsom College reported 95% of grades at A*-B and Blenheim High a record 77% at A*-C. Every figure the borough's schools published, plus the 20 August remark deadline.

Three sixth forms in Epsom and Ewell have published A Level figures for 2026, after grades were released on Thursday 13 August. Epsom College reported the best results in its history, with 95% of grades at A* to B. Blenheim High School in Epsom reported 77% at A* to C, which is a school record on its own published run of results. Ewell Castle School reported 79% at A* to C and a 100% pass rate.

Two of the borough’s other providers had published no 2026 figures when we checked on Friday 15 August. Below is exactly what each one put out, the one comparison in this year’s numbers that is genuinely worth making, and the deadline that matters most now if a grade looks wrong: 20 August, which is also GCSE results day.

Epsom College

Epsom College on College Road (KT17 4JQ) reported the highest figures in the borough from a year group of 214 pupils: 31% of grades at A*, 74% at A* to A, 95% at A* to B and 100% at A* to C. Just over half the year group, 112 pupils, achieved three or four grades at A* or A.

The independent school said this is its fourth consecutive year of record results. It also published figures for the qualifications its pupils take alongside A Levels: 86% of Extended Project Qualification results were awarded A* or A, with 100% at A* to B, and of 41 BTEC entries, 48.8% were awarded D*, the highest grade, with 98% at D* or D.

Head Mark Lascelles said the year group “worked with ambition and real purpose”, and that examinations “measure only one part of what a young person has achieved during their time at Epsom” (Epsom College, 13 August 2026).

Blenheim High School

Blenheim High School on Longmead Road (KT19 9BH), a state academy, reported 21% of grades at A* to A, 48% at A* to B and 77% at A* to C. In vocational subjects it reported 28% of grades at Distinction* and 72% at Distinction* to Distinction.

Set against the school’s own published record, that A* to C figure is the highest it has printed: its results page gives 73% in 2025, 71% in 2024 and 76% in 2023, with A* to B at 48%, 47% and 50% across the same three years (Blenheim exam results). The Distinction* rate is a clear jump too, from 21% last year.

Headteacher Tony Bodell said the results reflected “the commitment, determination and hard work of our students and staff”, and singled out “the diverse range of courses, institutions and career pathways our students are now progressing to”. The school listed destinations including a degree apprenticeship with an accountancy firm, policing, veterinary study and outdoor adventure education at Chichester (Blenheim High School, 13 August 2026).

Ewell Castle School

Ewell Castle School on Church Street (KT17 2AW) reported 21% of A Level grades at A* to A, 48% at A* to B, 79% at A* to C and a 100% pass rate.

The independent school also published subject-level results: 100% of students taking Russian and Japanese achieved A*; 100% in Music achieved A* or A; 100% in Drama, Religious Studies and Spanish achieved A* to B; and 100% in Chemistry and Economics achieved A* to C. Executive Principal Silas Edmonds said the results were “a testament to their dedication and higher order thinking skills” (Ewell Castle School, 13 August 2026).

Glyn School, Rosebery School and Nescot

Glyn School in Ewell posted a congratulations notice to its Class of 2026 on results day itself, dated 13 August, but it carried no figures (Glyn School announcement). Its Key Stage 5 results page still ends at 2025, when the school reported 22% A* to A, 48% A* to B and 73% A* to C, with 207 students completing Year 13 and 160 of them (77%) going to university (Glyn Key Stage 5 results).

Rosebery School in Epsom had published nothing for 2026 when we checked on 15 August. Its exam results page is still headed “A Level Results - Thursday 14 August 2025” and gives last year’s figures: 36% of entries at A or A*, 70% at A* to B and 88% at A* to C (Rosebery exam results).

Nescot in Ewell, the borough’s further education college, blocks automated access to its website, so we could not check whether it has published results and make no claim either way.

We have not named any student or reproduced any individual’s grades. Schools publish those with families’ agreement; that is their call to make, not ours.

The one comparison worth making

Blenheim High School and Ewell Castle School reported the same two headline percentages this year: 21% at A* to A and 48% at A* to B. One is a state academy, the other charges fees. Both published A Level grades only, with vocational results given separately, so for once the two numbers are measuring close to the same thing.

That is worth pausing on, because nationally those two sectors are nowhere near each other. Ofqual’s official statistics for summer 2026 put independent schools at 48.6% of A Level results at grade A and above and academies at 23.5% (Qualification results in England, summer 2026, table 9).

Read against those benchmarks, Blenheim’s 21% sits a little below the academy average and Ewell Castle’s 21% sits a long way below the independent one. Epsom College’s 74% is far above both.

Bar chart comparing the percentage of A Level grades at A star to A in 2026: Epsom College 74 per cent, Blenheim High School 21 per cent and Ewell Castle School 21 per cent, against Ofqual benchmarks of 48.6 per cent for independent schools, 31.5 per cent for the South East, 28.3 per cent for England and 23.5 per cent for academies
A Level grades at A* or A, 2026. Local figures are each school's own published number; benchmarks are Ofqual. Sources: Epsom College, Blenheim High School, Ewell Castle School and Ofqual.

Why you should not turn these into a league table

It is tempting to line up 95%, 79% and 77% and rank them. Do not.

Schools choose their own measure. Some lead on A* to B, some on A* to C, some on the pass rate. Some fold BTEC and other level 3 results into the headline; the three above happen to report those separately, but that is not guaranteed from year to year. Two of the three charge fees, and cohort size matters: a percentage from 214 pupils moves very differently from one drawn from a small sixth form.

The official statistics are measured differently again. Ofqual publishes A and above and C and above for A Levels only. So a school’s A* to C is roughly comparable with “C and above”, while A* to B has no national equivalent at all and can only be set against that same school’s own previous years, which is why the Blenheim comparison above uses the school’s own record rather than a national figure.

For context, in summer 2026 Ofqual recorded 28.3% of A Level results in England at grade A and above and 78.1% at grade C and above, from 835,950 A Levels awarded to 320,505 students. Both are marginally up on 2025 (28.2% and 77.7%). In the South East the figures were 31.5% and 79.5%, also up slightly on last year (table 8 of the same release).

One further caveat, because coverage elsewhere regularly trips over it: Ofqual also publishes an interactive map of results by local authority district, and that map assigns grades by the postcode of the exam centre, not by where the student lives. A borough with a large independent school ranks high partly on the results of children who live somewhere else. Epsom and Ewell is exactly that kind of borough, so treat any district ranking you see for it with care.

What it means for you

If a grade looks wrong, the clock is already running. The priority review of marking, which covers A Levels, T Levels and level 3 vocational qualifications, closes on 20 August 2026 and is completed within 15 calendar days. It is the only route that can still change a university place this cycle. The standard review of marking and the clerical re-check both close on 24 September 2026, completed within 20 and 10 calendar days (JCQ post-results services).

Two things families routinely get wrong. First, you cannot apply yourself: the request has to be submitted by the centre, with the student’s written consent held on file, so the first call is to the school or college exams officer, not the exam board. Second, there is no grade protection. A review can lower a grade as well as raise it.

GCSE results day is Thursday 20 August, the same morning as that priority deadline. If you have one child collecting GCSEs and another weighing up a remark, both jobs land at once, so make the call to the exams officer early.

If you are travelling to a university open day or a Clearing visit, our Epsom train times to London page sets out the two separate routes out of Epsom and the realistic journey times, which differ more than the timetable suggests.

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