Newstead Wood published 53% of entries at A* or A, Bromley High 58% and Langley Park Girls 20%, against 32.7% across London. Ofqual now breaks results down by borough too.

Three of the borough’s sixth forms have now published their own A level figures for summer 2026 on their websites. Newstead Wood School in Orpington awarded 53% of its entries a grade A or A*, Bromley High School in Bickley 58%, and Langley Park School for Girls in Beckenham 20%. Across London as a whole the figure was 32.7%, and across England 28.3%.

Those national and regional numbers come from Qualification results in England: summer 2026, the official statistics Ofqual published at 9.30am on results day, Thursday 13 August. They cover 835,950 A level results issued to 320,505 students at 2,835 schools and colleges, an average of 2.61 A levels each. Nationally, 28.3% of entries were graded A or above, a shade up on 28.2% last year, and 78.1% were graded C or above.

For the first time, you can look Bromley up yourself

Until this summer there was no official way to see how a single borough had done on results day. On 7 August, Ofqual added local authority districts to its Analytics platform, and the 2026 A level data went live on the map at 9.30am on results day. Grades are assigned to areas using the postcode of the exam centre on the National Centre Number register, so the Bromley figure covers entries sat at schools and colleges in the borough rather than entries by residents of it.

“Clear useful data on qualifications and outcomes by local authority will enable local leaders to gain stronger understanding of performance in their area,” said Sir Ian Bauckham, Ofqual’s chief regulator, when the tool launched. The map is at analytics.ofqual.gov.uk: choose the summer series, the subject and the grade, then drill from region to county to local authority district.

London pulled further ahead

London recorded the highest share of top grades of any English region for the third year running, on 32.7% of its 168,505 results at grade A or above, with the South East next on 31.5%. The North East and the East Midlands were joint lowest on 23.1%. In 2023 the South East was still ahead of London, on 30.3% against 30.0%.

The gap between London and England as a whole has widened in each of the last four years, from 3.4 percentage points in 2023 to 4.4 this summer.

Year London at A or above England at A or above Gap
2023 30.0% 26.6% 3.4 pts
2024 31.3% 27.6% 3.7 pts
2025 32.1% 28.2% 3.9 pts
2026 32.7% 28.3% 4.4 pts

Source: Ofqual, table 8, A level results by region.

What the three Bromley schools reported

Newstead Wood School, a selective girls’ academy on Avebury Road in Orpington with a roll of 1,347 and headteacher Paul Norman, said 82% of its entries were graded A* to B and 53% A* to A, with nine subjects at 90% or better for A* to B: art, classics, computer science, economics, geography, German, history, psychology, and religion, philosophy and ethics. Twelve of its students have places at Oxford or Cambridge. Norman said the results “represent far more than grades” and “reflect years of dedication, encouragement and belief in each student’s potential”. The school’s type and roll are confirmed on its Get Information about Schools record.

Bromley High School, the independent Girls’ Day School Trust school off Blackbrook Lane, published a full subject table rather than a press line: 20% of its 199 entries at A*, 58% at A* to A and 86% at A* to B, across 29 subjects including the extended project.

Langley Park School for Girls, a non-selective academy in Beckenham with 1,714 pupils, reported that “one in five grades achieved was at A* to A, while 50% of all grades were awarded at A* to B”. Its vocational students averaged a distinction, with 83% of grades at merit or above.

Darrick Wood School in Orpington congratulated its Year 13 on results across A level, BTEC and the extended project but has not put figures on its site. Several of the borough’s best-known sixth forms, St Olave’s Grammar School among them, had published nothing for 2026 on their own websites when this was written.

How to compare the numbers fairly

A single school’s percentage cannot be read straight against a regional average. Ofqual’s regional figures cover every entry sat in that region, at grammar schools, comprehensives, sixth form colleges, further education colleges and independent schools alike. Selective and fee-charging schools admit by test or by fee, and they sit at the top of every national table as a result.

The fair comparison is with the same kind of centre. Ofqual publishes that too, for England in 2026:

Type of centre Results At grade A or above
Independent schools 107,940 48.6%
Grammar schools 83,585 43.4%
Free schools 18,255 27.0%
Sixth form colleges 125,805 25.6%
All state-funded 712,685 25.4%
Academies 318,030 23.5%
Council-maintained comprehensives 94,270 23.0%
Further education colleges 51,280 12.8%

Source: Ofqual, table 9, A level results by centre type.

On that basis Newstead Wood’s 53% sits about ten points above the national grammar school average of 43.4%, and Bromley High’s 58% about nine points above the independent average of 48.6%. Langley Park School for Girls’ 20% sits below the 23.5% academy average, on a cohort that includes a substantial vocational entry the grammar and independent figures do not.

Bar chart of the percentage of A level entries graded A or above in summer 2026: England 28.3, London 32.7, all state-funded centres 25.4, grammar schools 43.4, independent schools 48.6, and the self-published Bromley figures of 53 for Newstead Wood, 58 for Bromley High and 20 for Langley Park School for Girls
Chart by Bromley Online. Ofqual figures cover all entries in England; the Bromley figures are each school's own published total for its own entries.

Some further context from Ofqual’s own results day summary: 7,245 students in England took an A* in every subject they sat, about two thirds of students took three subjects, and maths was the single most popular A level at roughly one entry in eight, with 42.1% of its entries at A* or A.

What it means for you

If you are still without a place. UCAS Clearing is open from 2 July to 19 October 2026 and covers more than 30,000 courses, and UCAS says more than 50,000 students find a place through it each year. You can use Clearing if you hold no offer, if you did not meet your conditions, or if you decline your firm place. A missed grade is not the end of the application.

If a grade looks wrong. A review of marking is requested by the centre that entered you, not by you directly. Pearson, which awards Edexcel A levels, states that exams officers make the request and need the student’s permission first, so the first call is to your school or college office rather than the exam board. Each board sets its own completion deadlines, so make that call now rather than waiting for term to start.

If you are choosing a sixth form for next year. Use the Ofqual map for the borough picture, then read individual schools’ own results pages, and check what each one actually offers: two of the three Bromley schools above publish A level grades only, while Langley Park School for Girls reports vocational outcomes alongside them. Results are one input among several. If a school run is going to shape where you live, our Bromley house prices page sets out what homes in the borough are actually selling for, and the council tax bands page covers the yearly bill that comes with them.

GCSE results follow on Thursday 20 August, and Ofqual has said the borough-level GCSE data will go live on the same map at 9.30am that morning.

Sources