Epsom GCSE Results Day 2026: 8.30am starts, 24 Sept deadline

Year 11 students across Epsom and Ewell collect their GCSE results on Thursday 20 August. AQA lists 20 August 2026 as results day for the summer GCSE series, with results slips released to students from 8am. Exams officers and heads of centre can see the grades from 00:01 the day before, which is why schools always know before students do.

We checked the websites of every secondary school in the borough on Tuesday 18 August. One has published its arrangements in full, and it is the one most people would not think to check.

Ewell Castle is the only school with a published time

Ewell Castle School in Church Street, Ewell has put its full results-day arrangements online. Its page says:

• GCSE and IGCSE results are available between 8.30am and 11am on Thursday 20 August, in the Budgell Hall
• staff will be there to advise pupils and parents across the same 8.30am to 11am window
• entry is via the car park and quad gates to the left of reception, signposted on the day
• there is no parking on site for parents or guardians, and the school points to the pay and display car parks in the village and at Bourne Hall
• families should complete the school’s Results Collection Form beforehand
• a pupil who cannot attend can nominate a third party to collect on their behalf
• results are also published to the My School Portal from 12 noon, under Exam Results in My Pupil

If you are driving over for the 8.30am opening, the Bourne Hall car park is the closest option and it fills quickly on a weekday morning. Our Epsom roadworks and travel page has the current closures across the borough.

What the other schools have said

The picture at the state schools is thinner.

• Rosebery School lists “20 August, GCSE Results Day” in the calendar on its home page, with no collection time attached. Its news page carried nothing about results day, the most recent item being from 9 July.
• Blenheim High School had no results-day item on its news page and its announcements page read “there are currently no announcements”.
• Glyn School posted a congratulations notice for A Level results on 13 August but had nothing on its announcements page about 20 August.
• Epsom and Ewell High School in Ruxley Lane had no results-day notice on its site, and August does not appear at all in its published calendar.

We could not reach Nescot, the further education college on Reigate Road in Ewell. Its site returned a 403 error to us on both the home page and the enrolment page, so we cannot say what it has published. If your child has a conditional offer there, phone rather than rely on the website.

Where a school has not written to you, the school office is the place to ask. A calendar entry is not a collection time.

The grades the borough’s sixth forms ask for

Two of the state sixth forms publish a threshold, and they are very different in kind.

Glyn School sets the clearest bar. Its sixth form admissions page requires “a minimum of five Grade 9-4 GCSE’s, including Level 4 or above in Maths and one English paper”, plus the entry requirements for each chosen course. The same page says applications for September 2026 entry have now closed, and points anyone still looking to a waiting list.

Rosebery School does not publish grade numbers. Its application page asks that students are “on track to achieve a standard or strong pass in the majority of their GCSE subjects”, with offers conditional on meeting subject requirements listed separately.

Blenheim High School publishes no minimum on its sixth form admissions page. Every applicant is interviewed by a member of the sixth form team, and external applicants are directed to sixthformadmissions@blenheim.surrey.sch.uk.

One warning worth repeating. A published minimum is not the same as the subject requirement. Blenheim’s own mathematics course page asks for a grade 7 to take A Level maths, and a grade 8 for further maths. Five 4s can clear the school threshold and still not clear the subject.

What last year’s results looked like

Blenheim is the one borough school publishing a proper run of GCSE figures, and its exam results page sets 2025 against the two years before it. In 2025 the school recorded:

• 78% of grades at 9 to 4, a school record, against 76% in 2024 and 70% in 2023
• 66% of students with five or more grades at 9 to 4 including maths and English, also a record
• 59% of grades at 9 to 5, up from 57%
• 25% of grades at 9 to 7, level with 2024 and up from 23% in 2023

Those are the school’s own published figures and they are a useful yardstick for Thursday. National comparison arrives the same day: Ofqual updates its summer 2026 results release on 20 August to take in level 1/2 and level 2 qualifications, which is where GCSEs sit.

If a grade looks wrong

The window opens on the day and it is longer than most families expect.

JCQ’s post-results services timetable says clerical re-checks, reviews of marking and reviews of moderation can be requested from 20 August. The deadline for awarding bodies to receive a review request is 24 September 2026. The same date is the deadline for requesting copies of scripts.

Two things to know before you start:

• requests go through the school’s exams office, not direct from a parent to the exam board
• a review can move a grade down as well as up, so ask the school to look at the mark scheme first

An appeal is a separate and later step. It can only be lodged once a review has come back.

What it means for you

If Thursday does not go to plan, nothing is closed off that morning.

Your child must be in education or training until they are 18. The rule on gov.uk gives three ways to meet it: full-time education such as a college course, an apprenticeship, or 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering alongside part-time education or training.

A grade 3 in maths or English is not the end of it, but it does come with a condition. Under the 16 to 19 maths and English condition of funding for 2026 to 2027, a student with a grade 3 must study towards a GCSE in that subject. A student with a grade 2 or below may study either a GCSE or a Functional Skills level 2. Most colleges build this into the timetable rather than making it an extra.

Practical steps for Thursday morning:

• go in person if you can, because the staff who can answer questions are only there for a couple of hours
• take the results slip itself to any college or sixth form appointment, not a photograph of it
• if a place depended on a grade that has been missed, speak to the school before ringing round, because they can often confirm a place on the day
• if you want a review of marking, tell the exams office before term ends rather than in September

Our report on this year’s A Level results across the borough has the sixth form figures the same schools published last week.

Sources

• AQA, results days
• Ewell Castle School, public examinations information
• Glyn School, sixth form admissions
• Rosebery School, applying for sixth form 2026-28
• Blenheim High School, sixth form admissions and exam results and progression
• JCQ, post-results services
• Ofqual, qualification results in England summer 2026
• GOV.UK, know when you can leave school
• GOV.UK, 16 to 19 funding: maths and English condition of funding