Epsom College took 41% grade 9s and 88% at 9 to 7 in 2026, one point up on last year. The five-year run, and why it is still the only Epsom school with a figure.
Year 11 students across Epsom and Ewell collected their GCSE results on Thursday 20 August 2026, and on a re-check of every secondary school’s website on 9 September 2026 exactly two schools in the borough have published a figure. Epsom College recorded 41% of grades at 9 and 88% at 9 to 7, the best in its history. Blenheim High School, the state school on Longmead Road, put out its own record set the same day: 70% of students took five or more grades at 9 to 4 including maths and English, and 50% took five or more at 9 to 5 on the same basis. Nobody else in Epsom and Ewell has published anything. AQA lists 20 August 2026 as results day for the summer GCSE series, with results slips released to students from 8am. Exams officers and heads of centre can see the grades from 00:01 the day before, which is why schools always know before students do.
We checked the websites of every secondary school in the borough on Tuesday 18 August, before results day, again on Monday 24 August, and again on Wednesday 9 September. Ewell Castle was the only school to publish its collection arrangements in full. Epsom College and Blenheim High School are the only two to have published results.
Epsom College GCSE results 2026
Epsom College, the independent school on College Road, is the only school in Epsom and Ewell to have published GCSE figures for 2026. It did not put out a separate GCSE announcement: it added the numbers to its A-level story, which is now headed “Epsom Celebrates Greatest Ever Year of Exam Results”, so anyone looking for a GCSE press release will not find one.
The school’s own published figures for this summer:
| Measure | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Graded 9 | 41% |
| Graded 9 to 8 | 69% |
| Graded 9 to 7 | 88% |
| Pupils with 10 or more straight 9s | 9 |
| Best individual result | 12 straight 9s |
| Pupils with 9 to 7 in every subject | 88, over half the year group |
Three pupils took 11 straight 9s. Mark Lascelles, the Head, said the results were “not a one-off”, pointing to a fourth consecutive year of record A-levels and GCSE results that “have climbed steadily over the same period”.
The school’s own two published figures do not match
Epsom College publishes its GCSE headline in two places and they disagree by a point. Its exam results page gives 41% at grade 9, 70% at 9 to 8 and 88% at 9 to 7. The news article the figures first appeared in says 69% at 9 to 8. The 41% and the 88% are the same in both. Checked 3 September 2026. Where the two differ we have used the results page, which is the one the school maintains.
Epsom College GCSE results 2026 compared with 2025
The “best ever” line is doing some work. On the measure the school leads with, grades at 9 to 7, 2026 is one percentage point above 2025. The real movement is at the top: 9 to 8 went up three points, and 2026 is the first year the school has published a standalone grade 9 percentage at all.
| Year | Graded 9 | Graded 9 to 8 | Graded 9 to 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 41% | 70% | 88% |
| 2025 | not published | 67% | 87% |
| 2023 | not published | 63% | 83.4% |
The 2023 and 2025 figures are from the school’s own results articles, “College’s Best Ever GCSE Results With 83.4% 7-9s” and “Pupils Celebrate Outstanding Exam Results as Records Fall”. Read them together and the pattern is a school that has moved about five points at 9 to 7 in three years and seven points at 9 to 8, which is a steady climb rather than a jump.
Two cautions on the comparison. The 2025 article quotes 87% at 9 to 7 in one sentence and 86% in another, in the phrase “rising from 74% four years ago to this year’s 86%”, so the 2025 baseline is itself soft by a point. And the school did not publish a grade 9 percentage before 2026, so nobody can say from public figures whether 41% is a record.
The other half of the same summer: Epsom College’s A-levels came in at 31% A, 75% at A-A and 95% at A-B, with 100% at A-C, on the same results page. Those are 2026 figures and, unlike the GCSE set, they are given only there and in the press release.
For scale, 88% at grade 7 or above is roughly four times the rate Blenheim High School recorded in 2025, which was 25% at 9 to 7. The two are not comparable in any useful sense, one being a selective fee-charging school and the other a state academy taking the local intake, but it is the only borough comparison available until the state schools publish.
Blenheim High School: the borough’s state school figures
Blenheim High School on Longmead Road is the only state school in Epsom and Ewell to have published a 2026 GCSE headline. Its own account, posted on 20 August 2026, calls it a record-breaking year and sets out four numbers:
| Measure | Blenheim, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Five or more grades 9 to 4 including maths and English | 70% of students, a school record |
| Five or more grades 9 to 5 including maths and English | 50% of students, a school record |
| All results graded 9 to 5 | 62% |
| All results graded 9 to 7 | 25% |
The school also says its boys “bucked the national trend” and took nine of its ten top performing sets of results.
Read the two schools’ figures carefully before comparing them, because they are not the same measure. Epsom College’s 41% and 88% are shares of all grades awarded. Blenheim’s 70% and 50% are shares of students clearing a threshold, which is the standard state school measure and cannot be set against a grade share. The only line that is genuinely comparable is grades at 9 to 7: 88% at Epsom College against 25% at Blenheim, and even that compares a selective independent school with a non-selective state one.
The rest of the borough has still published nothing
Checked again on Wednesday 9 September, nearly three weeks after results day: Rosebery School, Glyn School, Epsom and Ewell High School and Ewell Castle School had all still published no 2026 GCSE figures. Rosebery’s exam results page and Glyn’s Key Stage 4 examination results page both carry earlier years only. Ewell Castle, which was the most organised school in the borough before the day, has put nothing out since. Nescot still returns a 403 error, so we cannot say what it has published.
This is the normal pattern here rather than anything unusual. The state schools’ own results pages tend to be updated in the autumn, and the Department for Education does not publish verified school-level GCSE data for summer 2026 until later in the year, so a figure quoted for one of these schools now is almost certainly last year’s.
Ewell Castle is the only school with a published time
Ewell Castle School in Church Street, Ewell has put its full results-day arrangements online. Its page says:
- GCSE and IGCSE results are available between 8.30am and 11am on Thursday 20 August, in the Budgell Hall
- staff will be there to advise pupils and parents across the same 8.30am to 11am window
- entry is via the car park and quad gates to the left of reception, signposted on the day
- there is no parking on site for parents or guardians, and the school points to the pay and display car parks in the village and at Bourne Hall
- families should complete the school’s Results Collection Form beforehand
- a pupil who cannot attend can nominate a third party to collect on their behalf
- results are also published to the My School Portal from 12 noon, under Exam Results in My Pupil
If you are driving over for the 8.30am opening, the Bourne Hall car park is the closest option and it fills quickly on a weekday morning. Our Epsom roadworks and travel page has the current closures across the borough.
What the other schools have said
The picture at the state schools is thinner.
- Rosebery School lists “20 August, GCSE Results Day” in the calendar on its home page, with no collection time attached. Its news page carried nothing about results day, the most recent item being from 9 July.
- Blenheim High School has since published, and is the exception. Its news page carries a piece dated 20 August 2026 setting out the figures in the table above.
- Glyn School posted a congratulations notice for A Level results on 13 August but had nothing on its announcements page about 20 August.
- Epsom and Ewell High School in Ruxley Lane had no results-day notice on its site, and August does not appear at all in its published calendar.
We could not reach Nescot, the further education college on Reigate Road in Ewell. Its site returned a 403 error to us on both the home page and the enrolment page, so we cannot say what it has published. If your child has a conditional offer there, phone rather than rely on the website.
Where a school has not written to you, the school office is the place to ask. A calendar entry is not a collection time.
The grades the borough’s sixth forms ask for
Two of the state sixth forms publish a threshold, and they are very different in kind.
Glyn School sets the clearest bar. Its sixth form admissions page requires “a minimum of five Grade 9-4 GCSE’s, including Level 4 or above in Maths and one English paper”, plus the entry requirements for each chosen course. The same page says applications for September 2026 entry have now closed, and points anyone still looking to a waiting list.
Rosebery School does not publish grade numbers. Its application page asks that students are “on track to achieve a standard or strong pass in the majority of their GCSE subjects”, with offers conditional on meeting subject requirements listed separately.
Blenheim High School publishes no minimum on its sixth form admissions page. Every applicant is interviewed by a member of the sixth form team, and external applicants are directed to sixthformadmissions@blenheim.surrey.sch.uk.
One warning worth repeating. A published minimum is not the same as the subject requirement. Blenheim’s own mathematics course page asks for a grade 7 to take A Level maths, and a grade 8 for further maths. Five 4s can clear the school threshold and still not clear the subject.
What last year’s results looked like
Blenheim is the one borough school publishing a proper run of GCSE figures, and its exam results page sets 2025 against the two years before it. In 2025 the school recorded:
- 78% of grades at 9 to 4, a school record, against 76% in 2024 and 70% in 2023
- 66% of students with five or more grades at 9 to 4 including maths and English, also a record
- 59% of grades at 9 to 5, up from 57%
- 25% of grades at 9 to 7, level with 2024 and up from 23% in 2023
Those are the school’s own published figures and they remain the yardstick until Blenheim publishes its 2026 set. National comparison arrives the same day: Ofqual updates its summer 2026 results release on 20 August to take in level 1/2 and level 2 qualifications, which is where GCSEs sit.
If a grade looks wrong
The window opens on the day and it is longer than most families expect.
JCQ’s post-results services timetable says clerical re-checks, reviews of marking and reviews of moderation can be requested from 20 August. The deadline for awarding bodies to receive a review request is 24 September 2026. The same date is the deadline for requesting copies of scripts.
Two things to know before you start:
- requests go through the school’s exams office, not direct from a parent to the exam board
- a review can move a grade down as well as up, so ask the school to look at the mark scheme first
An appeal is a separate and later step. It can only be lodged once a review has come back.
Common questions
What were Epsom College’s GCSE results in 2026?
41% of grades were a 9, 69% were 9 or 8 and 88% were 9 to 7, which the school says is its best ever. Nine pupils got ten or more straight 9s, one got twelve, and 88 pupils, over half the year group, got 9 to 7 in every subject.
How do Epsom College’s 2026 GCSE results compare with 2025?
Grades at 9 to 7 went from 87% to 88%, and 9 to 8 from 67% to 70%. The school did not publish a grade 9 percentage before 2026, so the 41% has nothing to be compared against.
Which Epsom schools have published 2026 GCSE results?
Only Epsom College, and it folded the figures into its A-level article rather than issuing a separate GCSE one. Blenheim, Rosebery, Glyn, Epsom and Ewell High and Ewell Castle had published nothing as of 24 August 2026.
When was GCSE results day 2026?
Thursday 20 August 2026. Results were released to students from 8am, and exams officers could see them from 00:01 the day before.
How long do you have to challenge a GCSE grade?
The JCQ deadline for a review of results request is 24 September 2026. Ask your school first: the request goes through the centre, not from you to the exam board.
What it means for you
If Thursday does not go to plan, nothing is closed off that morning.
Your child must be in education or training until they are 18. The rule on gov.uk gives three ways to meet it: full-time education such as a college course, an apprenticeship, or 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering alongside part-time education or training.
A grade 3 in maths or English is not the end of it, but it does come with a condition. Under the 16 to 19 maths and English condition of funding for 2026 to 2027, a student with a grade 3 must study towards a GCSE in that subject. A student with a grade 2 or below may study either a GCSE or a Functional Skills level 2. Most colleges build this into the timetable rather than making it an extra.
Practical steps for Thursday morning:
- go in person if you can, because the staff who can answer questions are only there for a couple of hours
- take the results slip itself to any college or sixth form appointment, not a photograph of it
- if a place depended on a grade that has been missed, speak to the school before ringing round, because they can often confirm a place on the day
- if you want a review of marking, tell the exams office before term ends rather than in September
Our report on this year’s A Level results across the borough has the sixth form figures the same schools published last week.
Sources
- AQA, results days
- Epsom College, Epsom Celebrates Greatest Ever Year of Exam Results, the school’s own 2026 GCSE and A-level figures, checked 24 August 2026.
- Epsom College, exam results and destinations, the 2026 GCSE and A-level headline figures, checked 3 September 2026.
- Epsom College, Pupils Celebrate Outstanding Exam Results as Records Fall, the 2025 GCSE figures.
- Epsom College, College’s Best Ever GCSE Results With 83.4% 7-9s, the 2023 GCSE figures.
- Ewell Castle School, public examinations information
- Blenheim High School, Record Breaking year for Blenheim High School as students celebrate GCSE Results, posted 20 August 2026, the school’s own 2026 GCSE figures, checked 9 September 2026.
- Glyn School, sixth form admissions
- Rosebery School, applying for sixth form 2026-28
- Blenheim High School, sixth form admissions and exam results and progression
- JCQ, post-results services
- Ofqual, qualification results in England summer 2026
- GOV.UK, know when you can leave school
- GOV.UK, 16 to 19 funding: maths and English condition of funding
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