Wandsworth A level results 2026: 79.1% A*-C, Graveney 85%

Grades at A* to C across Wandsworth’s schools and colleges rose by 3.5 percentage points to 79.1 per cent this summer, according to provisional figures the council gathered on results day, Thursday 13 August. That is up from 75.6 per cent in 2025. Grades at A* to E rose from 97.7 per cent to 98.5 per cent. (Wandsworth Council, 13 August)

The borough’s BTEC results improved by more. The share of results at Distinction or D* rose 5.2 points, from 40.4 per cent to 45.6 per cent, and the overall pass rate went from 97.4 per cent to 99.4 per cent, the council said. Its figures cover A levels, T Levels, BTECs and other level 3 qualifications together; the release does not break A levels out on their own.

Nationally, Ofqual’s official statistics put 78.1 per cent of A level results in England at grade C and above this year (77.7 per cent in 2025) and 28.3 per cent at grade A and above, from 835,950 results. London was the strongest region on both counts, at 80.5 per cent and 32.7 per cent, up from 79.5 and 32.1 last year. (Qualification results in England: summer 2026, table 8)

What Wandsworth schools published themselves

Most schools publish nothing on results day beyond a photograph. Five in the borough gave figures.

Graveney School in Welham Road, Tooting, which says its 438-strong Year 13 across 32 subjects makes it one of the biggest school sixth forms in the country, reported 85 per cent of A level grades at A* to C, up from 82 per cent last year, with 32 per cent at A* to A and 62 per cent at A* to B (60 per cent in 2025). It said 13 students are going to Oxford or Cambridge, roughly half to Russell Group universities and a further five to study medicine or veterinary medicine, and described the results as “on many measures our best ever”. (Graveney School, 13 August)

Chestnut Grove Academy in Balham said a third of its A level grades were A* or A and two thirds were A* to B. (Chestnut Grove Academy, 13 August) Last year the school reported 30 per cent at A* to A and 59 per cent at A* to B, so both measures have moved up. Its assistant headteacher Rachael Robinson was quoted by the council calling the grades “incredibly impressive” for a year group “who have been a joy to teach over the last seven years”.

Ark Putney Academy on Pullman Gardens said 74 per cent of its students achieved A to C grades across all three of their A level subjects, which it put at 20 percentage points higher than last year, and that 83 per cent of its BTEC students achieved DDM or above. Its leavers include students going on to Durham, King’s College London, Keele and Nottingham, several of them for medicine, dentistry or radiography. (Ark Putney Academy)

Among the borough’s independent schools, Emanuel School in Battersea Rise reported 90 per cent of grades at A* to B and “close to 60%” at A* to A, with 47 students achieving all A* or A grades and eight taking three A*s or more; its humanities entries came in at 98 per cent A* to B across 115 entries. (Emanuel School, 13 August) Ibstock Place School in Roehampton reported 61 per cent of full A levels at A* to A and 89 per cent at A* to B, six pupils heading to Oxford or Cambridge, and 43 per cent of pupils achieving the equivalent of three As or better. (Ibstock Place School, 13 August)

Ernest Bevin Academy in Tooting has not published borough-style percentages, but the council’s release quotes one of its students who is off to study medicine at Queen Mary University of London. Burntwood School, Saint Cecilia’s, Southfields Academy, Harris Academy Battersea, Ashcroft Technology Academy and Putney High School were all still showing their 2025 results pages two days after results day, and Saint Francis Xavier College’s results page tells students how to log in rather than reporting outcomes.

Read the percentages carefully

The numbers above do not all measure the same thing, and the press releases do not say so.

The council’s 79.1 per cent bundles A levels with T Levels, BTECs and other level 3 courses. Ofqual’s 78.1 per cent is A levels only. They are close enough in construction to sit side by side, but they are not identical, which is also why the council can say its figure “matches” an England average that differs from Ofqual’s published one.

The A* to B figures cannot be checked against national statistics at all. Ofqual’s regional and centre-type tables report only grade A and above and grade C and above; there is no A* to B column anywhere in the official data. So Chestnut Grove’s “two thirds” and Emanuel’s 90 per cent can only fairly be set against those schools’ own previous years, and Ark Putney’s 74 per cent (students, not grades, and across all three subjects) is a different measure again.

Centre type explains more of the gap than borough does. Nationally, 89.4 per cent of A level grades at independent schools and 88.4 per cent at grammar schools were C or above this year, against 76.8 per cent across all state-funded centres, 75.8 per cent at academies and 63.8 per cent in further education colleges. (Ofqual data tables, table 9) On that reading Graveney’s 85 per cent, from a state academy sixth form of 438, is the standout local figure.

One more caution for any borough league table you see this week. Ofqual now publishes A level outcomes by local authority district, but grades are assigned to a district by the postcode of the exam centre, not by where the student lives. In a borough whose large sixth forms and independent schools draw pupils from across south west London, a borough figure says less about Wandsworth children than it appears to.

What it means for you

If you want a grade reviewed, the deadline that matters is Thursday 20 August. That is the closing date for the priority review of marking, the only service quick enough to affect a university place: exam boards must complete it within 15 calendar days of receiving the request. The standard review of marking and the clerical re-check both close on 24 September, turned round within 20 and 10 calendar days. (JCQ post-results services)

Two things families regularly get wrong. Requests go through the school or college’s exams officer, not from you to the exam board, and they need the student’s written consent given after results were issued. And there is no grade protection: a review can lower a grade as well as raise it.

If you are still deciding what to do next, the council says its careers services and each school’s own staff can advise on UCAS Clearing, apprenticeships and further training. Wandsworth’s Virtual School, which supports care experienced young people, said its leavers this year range from Russell Group entrants to those taking full-time work or a year volunteering or travelling.

If you have a Year 11 in the house, GCSE results day is Thursday 20 August, the same day the priority re-mark window shuts for A levels. Ernest Bevin Academy and Ashcroft Technology Academy both run sixth form enrolment on the day; Ernest Bevin says its own Year 11s can collect and enrol from 8am and external applicants from 10am to 1pm, bringing a copy of their GCSE results and a passport or birth certificate. (Ernest Bevin Academy)

If you are choosing a school, our Wandsworth house prices page tracks the premium that follows the most sought-after catchments, and things to do in Wandsworth covers the summer between results and term.