Chelmsford County High reports 58% of grades at A* or A and 84 students with three top grades. New Hall and Great Baddow have published too; KEGS has not.
Sixth formers across Chelmsford collected A level, BTEC and vocational results on Thursday 13 August, and three schools in the city have now published how their year groups did. Several others, including King Edward VI Grammar School, had put nothing up when we checked on Saturday 15 August.
The national yardstick to hold these against: Ofqual issued 835,950 A level results in England on results day, of which 28.3 per cent were graded A or above and 78.1 per cent C or above. Two of the three Chelmsford schools below select their intake, so their grade profiles are not comparable with a comprehensive’s, and none of these figures is a league table position.
Chelmsford County High School: 58 per cent at A* or A
Chelmsford County High School for Girls published the fullest grade profile of any school in the city. It reports that 84 per cent of grades were at A*-B and 58 per cent at A*-A, and that 11 subjects, spanning the arts, humanities, languages, social sciences, STEM and the Extended Project Qualification, each returned 90 per cent or more at A*-B.
Eighty-four students achieved three or more grades at A* or A. The school also says Cambridge OCR told it one of its students was the highest performer nationally in this summer’s A level Religious Studies examination.
CCHS is a selective grammar school, so a grade profile roughly double the national A-or-above rate reflects an intake chosen by entrance test as well as the teaching. The school did not publish university destinations with its results.
New Hall School: 75 per cent at A*-B, and a first BTEC Sport cohort
New Hall School at Boreham reports 75 per cent of all A level grades at A*-B, with 15 students achieving straight A*/A grades and four securing straight A*s. It says 91 per cent of students secured their destination of choice.
The independent school led on subject strength rather than a single headline: 50 per cent of physics grades at A*, with 75 per cent at A*/A; 67 per cent of further mathematics grades at A*, with 83 per cent at A*/A; and in modern languages 56 per cent at A* and 81 per cent at A*/A. Its first ever cohort taking BTEC Sport returned 75 per cent of grades at Distinction*, which the school gives as the equivalent of an A* at A level, and 100 per cent at Distinction*/Distinction. From September 2026 it adds a BTEC Extended Certificate in Performing Arts alongside the sport diploma.
Published destinations include Oxford, Durham, Bath, Exeter, University College London, Warwick, King’s College London, the London School of Economics, the University of the Arts London and École Polytechnique in Paris, plus an apprenticeship with the wealth manager Rathbones. Two students took up Oxford places. Half of all boarders’ grades were at A*/A.
Principal Katherine Jeffrey said the school was “immensely proud of our students, and these results reflect their hard work and determination”. Paul Goulding, head of sixth form and Oxbridge co-ordinator, said New Hall’s “longstanding tradition of supporting students in securing places at Oxbridge continues this year”.
New Hall charges fees and selects its intake, so the same caveat applies here as at CCHS.
Great Baddow High School: destinations, but no grade profile
Great Baddow High School is the one non-selective school in Chelmsford to have published, and it chose not to release a percentage breakdown at all. Its post lists individual results and destinations instead.
Leading its cohort was a student who achieved four A* grades in economics, mathematics, further mathematics and physics and will read finance at the London School of Economics. Others recorded A*A*A, A*AA, A*AAB and AAA, going on to mathematics, business management, neuroscience, engineering, mechanical engineering, biochemistry, optometry, pharmacy and geography. On the vocational side, one student achieved Triple Distinction Star grades, the equivalent of three A levels, and is taking a professional industry pathway. Named university destinations include the London School of Economics, Durham, King’s College London, University College London, Bath, Nottingham and York.
Headteacher P Farmer said the results reflected “not only academic excellence but also the determination, resilience and character of our young people”.
Without a grade profile there is no way to compare Great Baddow’s year with the national 28.3 per cent at A or above, which is worth noting because it is the school whose intake most closely resembles the national picture. The Department for Education’s verified post-16 performance data for 2026, which includes progress measures rather than raw grades, is published later in the academic year.
Still to publish
King Edward VI Grammar School’s most recent results news item is A Level and GCSE Results 2025. St John Payne Catholic School lists examination results for 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022 but nothing for 2026. William de Ferrers School in South Woodham Ferrers and Chelmsford College, whose news page was last updated on 15 July, had published nothing on results when we checked. The Boswells School’s website returned an access error to us on both attempts, so we could not confirm either way. We will add figures as they appear.
One warning if you go looking yourself: school results pages frequently sit under a heading with no year in it while still carrying last year’s numbers. Check the date on anything you read before you compare it with anything else.
What it means for you
If a grade looks wrong. Post-results services are run by the exam boards, but the school or college has to make the request, and written candidate consent is needed first because a grade can go down as well as up. The Joint Council for Qualifications sets the deadlines: a priority review of marking, the one used when a university place turns on the outcome, must reach the awarding body by 20 August 2026. Every other review, including standard reviews of marking, clerical re-checks and reviews of moderation, closes on 24 September 2026. An appeal can only follow a review outcome, so the review has to come first.
If you did not get the place you wanted. UCAS Clearing is open, and sixth form and college careers staff are the quickest route to advice on it, on apprenticeship vacancies and on resitting.
If you have a Year 11 in the house. GCSE and Level 2 results follow on Thursday 20 August 2026, the day Ofqual updates the same statistical release to cover level 1/2 and level 2 qualifications. Two Chelmsford arrangements are already published for that morning. Great Baddow High School says GCSE results can be collected from the gym between 9am and 10am, and that students who have applied to its own sixth form will find a confirmation letter in the envelope and must accept the place by 1pm. King Edward VI Grammar School’s sixth form application form is only available on results day itself, Thursday 20 August, so anyone planning to apply there should do it that morning rather than leave it.
Sixth form places are one of the reasons families move into and stay in this part of Essex; our Chelmsford house prices page tracks what that currently costs, and things to do in Chelmsford covers what is on for the rest of the summer.
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