Newbury A-level results 2026: Downs 33% A*-A, Kennet 32%

Sixth formers across West Berkshire collected A-level, T Level and vocational results this morning. Two district schools put hard grade percentages into the public domain on the day: The Downs School Sixth Form at Compton, which reported 33% of grades at A* or A, and Kennet School in Thatcham, which reported 32%. Both sit above the South East average and well above the figure for England as a whole.

That national picture was published the same morning by Ofqual, the exams regulator. Its summer 2026 release records 835,950 A-level results issued in England to 320,505 students in 2,835 schools and colleges. Of those results, 28.3% were graded A or above and 78.1% reached grade C or above. In the South East the same figures were 31.5% and 79.5%, on 166,940 results.

The Downs School: 194 students, 13% of grades at A*

The Downs School Sixth Form at Compton published the fuller set of numbers. Its results day press release records 194 students sitting A-level and vocational qualifications, and reports:

• 13% of grades awarded at A*
• 33% at A*-A
• 62% at A*-B
• 84% at A*-C
• 45% of vocational grades at Distinction or Distinction*

That 84% at A*-C is close to six points above the 78.1% recorded across England. The school also states that the cohort’s progress places its students in the top 10% of schools nationally, which is the school’s own characterisation rather than a published Department for Education measure; the official progress data for this cohort will not appear in performance tables until 2027.

Headteacher Chris Prosser said the year group deserved credit “not only for what they have achieved academically, but for the way they have grown as young people”, and that his “biggest pleasure is knowing that so many of these students will now be able to access their chosen destinations, whether that will be university, apprenticeships, employment or another exciting pathway”.

The release lists nine students by first name alongside their next steps. Among them are one student holding four A* grades who is going on to read Medicine at Cardiff, two heading to Cambridge, one to Oxford to read History of Art, and one taking up an accountancy degree apprenticeship rather than a university place.

Kennet School: 32% at A*-A and an average grade of B

Kennet School in Thatcham reported 32% of A-level grades at A* or A and an average grade of B, which it describes as record outcomes for the second consecutive year. The school named Art, Biology, Chemistry, Further Mathematics, Mathematics, PE, Physics, Photography and Drama among its strongest subjects, and reported an average grade of A across both French and German.

Kennet also runs T Levels, and its statement is one of the few places locally where those results are quantified at all: T Level students averaged a Merit, which the school notes is equivalent to three B grades at A level. Five students are listed as achieving a full T Level Distinction, equivalent to three A levels.

Its list of highest individual results runs to twelve students: two with four A* grades, seven with three A* grades and an A, and three more with two A* grades. Ten students are named as holding competitive places for next year, including two at Oxford, one at Cambridge, three medicine or dentistry places, and a nuclear energy degree apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce.

What the rest of the district has not published

The two figures above are not a district-wide picture, and it would be wrong to read them as one. St Bartholomew’s School in Newbury, which entered 292 students for A-level and level 3 BTEC qualifications last year, had published no 2026 results by the time this was written; its own exam results page still ends at 2025, when 26.8% of its grades were A*-A and 8.7% were at A*. Park House School, Newbury College and Downe House had also posted nothing on results day, and Trinity School’s website was not reachable. We will add their figures when they publish them.

Three cautions are worth carrying into any comparison of these numbers.

1. Schools choose what to publish. A school reporting A*-A only, as Kennet does, is not directly comparable with one reporting the full A* to C spread, as The Downs does, and no school is obliged to publish anything at all.
2. The Ofqual figures count results, not students, and cover England only. A student sitting three A levels contributes three results.
3. Cohorts differ. A sixth form of 194 and one of nearly 300 will move by several percentage points on a handful of papers, and the mix of subjects and of A-level against vocational entries varies from school to school.

On the regional trend, the South East has climbed steadily rather than jumped: 30.3% of results at A or above in 2023, 30.8% in 2024, 31.2% in 2025 and 31.5% this year. England has moved 26.6%, 27.6%, 28.2%, 28.3% over the same four summers. This was not an unusual year for grading.

What it means for you

If a grade looks wrong. Ask the school first, not the exam board: only the centre can request a clerical re-check or a review of marking. The JCQ deadlines are firm. Requests for Priority Service 2 reviews, the fast route used where a university place depends on the outcome, must reach the awarding body by 20 August 2026. Everything else, including standard reviews of marking and clerical re-checks, must be in by 24 September 2026. A review can lower a grade as well as raise it, and the school needs the student’s written consent before submitting one.

If you are going through Clearing. UCAS Clearing is open from 2 July to 19 October 2026. It is available to anyone not already holding an offer where a course still has places, so a firm rejection this morning is not the end of the process. Course vacancies move fastest in the first 48 hours.

If you have a GCSE candidate at home. Ofqual has confirmed that results for GCSEs and other level 1/2 and level 2 qualifications are issued on 20 August 2026, a week today.

If the next step involves London. Newbury sits on the Reading to Taunton line, and a sixth former starting a course or a job in the capital in September should work out the cost before committing: our page on trains from Newbury to London sets out the fastest journey times and what an annual season ticket actually costs. For anyone staying local over the results fortnight, things to do in Newbury lists twelve options with this month’s prices checked.

We will update this piece as the district’s other sixth forms publish their figures. If your school or college has released results and we have missed them, tell us and we will add them with a link to the source.