Westminster A level results 2026: 86% at A*-C, above England

Eighty-six per cent of Westminster’s level 3 entries were graded A to C this year, against a national figure of 78 per cent, the council said as students collected A level, T Level and vocational results on Thursday 13 August. Sixty-seven per cent were graded A to B, against 56 per cent nationally. (Westminster City Council, 13 August)

The national comparison holds up where it can be checked. Ofqual’s official statistics, published the same morning, put 78.1 per cent of A level results in England at grade C and above, and 28.3 per cent at grade A and above, from 835,950 results issued. London did better than every other region on both measures, at 80.5 per cent and 32.7 per cent. (Qualification results in England: summer 2026, table 8)

Councillor Hannah Galley, cabinet member for children and education, said the results “reflect years of hard work” and thanked “the teachers, school staff, parents and carers who have helped our young people along the way”.

What Westminster schools published themselves

Most schools publish nothing on results day. Four in the borough did.

Harris Westminster Sixth Form, the selective state sixth form at Steel House on Tothill Street, published a full grade table for June 2026. Twenty-nine per cent of its A level grades were A*, 61 per cent were A* or A, 81 per cent were A* to B and 92 per cent were A* to C. Forty-one per cent of students got A*AA or better and 62 per cent got AAB or better. Its strongest subjects on top grades included drama and theatre, where 67 per cent of grades were A*, and mathematics, where 36 per cent were. (A level and Pre-U results 2026, PDF)

Westminster City School on Palace Street said almost two thirds of its grades were A* to B, holding the record it set last year, when the figure was 64 per cent. The school, which had a “strong” Ofsted judgement in June, said students are going on to Cambridge, UCL, Imperial College and LSE among others. (Westminster City School, results 2026)

King Solomon Academy in Penfold Street said every student on its business studies BTEC extended diploma achieved D*D*D*, D*D*D or D*DD, and that every pupil met or exceeded their university offer, with places at UCL, Queen Mary, Reading and Birmingham. Principal Beth Humphreys said some of the students had been at the all-through school since they were three. (King Solomon Academy)

Westminster Academy in Harrow Road marked BTEC level 3 results day on 13 August but has not published percentages. (Westminster Academy news)

Two more heads were quoted by the council without figures. Tony MacDowall, executive principal of Pimlico Academy, called it “another fantastic set of results”. Susanne Staab, headteacher of The Grey Coat Hospital, said the school tends to be “in the top 10% of non-selective schools nationally for our A Level results each year” and that this year’s were “just as strong as they have been in previous years”.

Read the percentages carefully

The figures above are not all measuring the same thing, and nobody publishing them says so.

The council’s 86 per cent covers “A Level, T Level and Vocational Technical Qualification results” together, and its release does not break out A levels on their own. Ofqual’s 78.1 per cent covers A levels only. Those two numbers are close enough in construction to be worth comparing, but they are not identical.

The 67 per cent at A to B cannot be checked against the official statistics at all. Ofqual’s regional and centre-type tables publish only grade A and above and grade C and above; there is no A* to B column anywhere in the national data. A school’s A* to B figure can only fairly be set against its own previous years, which is why Westminster City School’s “almost two thirds, again” is a more meaningful statement than it first looks.

Centre type matters more than borough. Nationally, 89.4 per cent of independent school A level grades and 88.4 per cent of grammar school grades were C or above this year, against 76.8 per cent across all state-funded centres and 63.8 per cent in further education colleges. (Ofqual data tables, table 9)

One more caution applies to any borough league table you see this week. Ofqual now publishes A level outcomes by local authority district, but grades are assigned to an area by the postcode of the exam centre in the National Centre Number register, not by where the student lives. In a borough like Westminster, which contains large selective and independent schools drawing pupils from across London, a district figure says less about local children than it appears to.

What it means for you

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

Two things families regularly get wrong. The request goes through the school or college’s exams officer, not from you to the exam board, and it needs the student’s written consent given after results were published. And there is no grade protection: a review can lower a grade as easily as raise it.

If you are still deciding what to do next, the council points students to its Family Information Hub and Youth Hub for post-16 education, training and employment options, and to UCAS for Clearing.

If you have a Year 11 in the house, GCSE results day is Thursday 20 August, the same day the priority re-mark window closes for A levels. Ofqual will update its results publication that morning to add level 1, level 2 and level 1/2 qualifications.

If you are choosing a sixth form, King Solomon Academy says it still has places on some courses for September 2026 and will open admissions after GCSE results are collected on 20 August. Local house prices, which track school catchments closely in this part of London, are on our Westminster house prices page.