Trinity reports its best ever A levels and Walthamstow Hall 50.7 per cent at A*/A. Every figure Sevenoaks schools published, and how the South East compares.

Two Sevenoaks schools published their own A level figures on results day, Thursday 13 August, and both reported a strong year: Trinity School says this is its best set of results ever, for the second year running, and Walthamstow Hall put half of all its grades at A* or A.

Nationally the picture barely moved. Ofqual issued 835,950 A levels to 320,505 students in England, and 28.3 per cent of results were at grade A or above, up from 28.2 per cent in 2025. (Ofqual, A Level and level 3 results 2026 at a glance)

Trinity School: best ever, again

Trinity School on Seal Hollow Road says its sixth formers have followed up 2025’s record year with the school’s best ever A level and level 3 BTEC and Cambridge Technical results. More than one in five A level grades were at A* or A, more than 54 per cent were at B or better, and more than 90 per cent were at C or equivalent and above. (Trinity School, Trinity Sixth Form students celebrate best ever results, again)

The school named several of its leavers and where they are going. Stephen Bradley took three A* grades and an A and is off to Cambridge to read computer science. Sam Phillips also achieved three A* grades and starts a medicine degree at Liverpool. Lucy Bunting, with two A* grades and an A, is going to Cardiff to read law, and Edward Williams, with an A* and three A grades, to University College London for chemical engineering.

Not everyone is going to university, and the school made a point of saying so: Theo Opitz-Frizzi has a degree apprenticeship with Commerzbank in London, Alex Turner an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering with SGE Limited, and Megan Johnston is weighing an offer in insurance with the Ardonagh Group.

Headteacher Dr Matthew Pawson said: “We are absolutely delighted with this set of results and the subsequent destinations our students are moving on to. They have done themselves and the School proud. What is important is the progress these students have made since the start of their Sixth Form studies, which has been exceptional.” (Trinity School)

Walthamstow Hall: half of all grades at A* or A

At Walthamstow Hall, the independent girls’ school on Holly Bush Lane, 24 per cent of all grades were A*, 50.7 per cent were A* or A, and 81.5 per cent were A* to B. Twenty-nine per cent of the Year 13 leavers got straight A* and A grades. (Walthamstow Hall, A Level Results)

The school says every girl holding an offer from Oxford, Cambridge or for medicine made her grades. Subjects where 60 per cent or more of candidates reached A* or A were art, chemistry, drama and theatre, classical civilisation, computer science, maths, further maths, history, Latin and politics. Every candidate in drama and theatre took an A*, every politics candidate an A, and every girl who sat the Extended Project Qualification came away with an A* or A.

Bar chart of the percentage of A level results at grade A or above in 2026: Walthamstow Hall 50.7 per cent, independent schools in England 48.6 per cent, grammar schools 43.4 per cent, the South East 31.5 per cent, England 28.3 per cent, all state-funded schools 25.4 per cent, Trinity School more than 20 per cent
Chart by Sevenoaks Online

How that compares

Compare like with like before reading much into the gap between those two sets of figures. Across England, 48.6 per cent of results at independent schools were at grade A or above, against 25.4 per cent across all state-funded schools and 23.5 per cent at academies. Grammar schools, which select on ability, were at 43.4 per cent. (Ofqual, Qualification results in England: summer 2026, table 9)

Geography matters too. The South East returned 166,940 A level results with 31.5 per cent at grade A or above and 79.5 per cent at C or above, second only to London on 32.7 per cent and comfortably ahead of the England average. (Ofqual, table 8)

Maths was again the most-taken subject nationally, accounting for roughly one A level result in eight, followed by psychology, biology, chemistry and economics. Ofqual attributes almost all of this year’s 0.1 percentage point rise in top grades to a slightly stronger maths cohort rather than to any change in standards. (Ofqual blog)

For the first time, Ofqual has also broken results down by local authority district in its published visualisations, so a Sevenoaks-level comparison will be possible from its A level results by administrative area tool.

What it means for students and parents

If the grades were not what you needed, nothing is settled today. University places can still be found through UCAS Clearing, which stays open into the autumn, and a place can be accepted directly through the UCAS hub.

If a grade looks wrong, the route is a review of marking, and it goes through the school or college rather than the student: exam centres request reviews from the awarding body, and there are deadlines, so contact the sixth form office rather than waiting.

Other district sixth forms had published nothing by the morning after results day. Knole Academy’s news feed and Weald of Kent Grammar School’s news pages carried no 2026 statement when we checked on 14 August, and Sevenoaks School follows the International Baccalaureate calendar, with its diploma results issued in July rather than on the English results day. GCSE results follow later this month.

This is the second Sevenoaks-area education story in three weeks to turn on Ofsted’s and Ofqual’s newer reporting: our report on Lady Boswell’s report card explains the five-point scale that has replaced the old single Ofsted grade. For what the district’s family housing market is doing around these schools, see Sevenoaks house prices, and for the commute the new university intake is about to start making, Sevenoaks train times to London.

Sources

Image: Walthamstow Hall, Sevenoaks by Jean Barrow, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph and Wikimedia Commons. Chart by Sevenoaks Online.