KEGS and County High top all 80 Essex state secondaries, and Beaulieu Park beats every other non-grammar in the city. All 11 Chelmsford schools ranked.
Chelmsford’s two grammar schools had the best GCSE results of any state secondary in Essex this summer. King Edward VI Grammar School came first and Chelmsford County High School for Girls second, out of 80 state mainstream secondaries in the Essex County Council area.
The Beaulieu Park School was the strongest of the city’s non-grammar schools. It was sixth in the whole county.
The Department for Education published school-by-school figures for 2026 on Thursday 15 October. They are provisional, and schools can still ask for corrections. (DfE, Key stage 4 performance 2025/26)
On results day in August, only a handful of Chelmsford schools published anything about their GCSEs (our results day report). The DfE data covers all of them on the same measures, so this is the first fair comparison of the year.
Every Chelmsford school, ranked
Attainment 8 is a pupil’s average score across eight GCSE-level subjects, with English and maths counted twice. Grade 5+ is the share of pupils who got a strong pass in both English and maths. The last column is the share of pupils across the whole school who are eligible for free school meals, from the DfE’s schools register, because intake shapes results as much as teaching. Beaulieu Park’s figure includes its primary years.
| School | Pupils | Attainment 8 | Grade 5+ English and maths | Grade 4+ English and maths | Free school meals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King Edward VI Grammar School (boys, selective) | 151 | 83.0 | 99.3% | 99.3% | 2.5% |
| Chelmsford County High School for Girls (selective) | 180 | 81.4 | 98.9% | 99.4% | 5.3% |
| The Beaulieu Park School | 175 | 59.3 | 77.7% | 88.6% | 11.4% |
| Moulsham High School | 256 | 54.8 | 60.9% | 77.0% | 12.4% |
| The Boswells School | 239 | 49.1 | 46.9% | 71.1% | 16.4% |
| St John Payne Catholic School | 184 | 48.7 | 46.2% | 65.8% | 16.7% |
| Great Baddow High School | 251 | 48.3 | 39.8% | 69.3% | 16.4% |
| Chelmer Valley High School | 192 | 48.0 | 50.0% | 66.1% | 23.2% |
| The Sandon School | 204 | 45.5 | 37.7% | 67.6% | 15.3% |
| William de Ferrers School, South Woodham Ferrers | 234 | 43.8 | 41.9% | 62.4% | 13.9% |
| Hylands School, Writtle | 102 | 40.3 | 40.2% | 54.9% | 45.2% |
| Pupils living in Chelmsford | 2,121 | 51.2 | 53.7% | 71.3% | |
| England, state-funded schools | 46.2 | 46.3% | 64.8% |
New Hall School in Boreham, which is independent, scored 64.3 on Attainment 8 and 81.1% at grade 5+, from 132 pupils. That is behind the two grammars and ahead of every other school in the district.
Where Chelmsford’s schools sit in Essex
We ranked all 80 state mainstream secondaries the DfE lists under Essex County Council on Attainment 8. Southend and Thurrock run their own schools and are not included.
- 1st and 2nd: King Edward VI Grammar School and Chelmsford County High School for Girls, ahead of Colchester’s two grammar schools.
- 6th: The Beaulieu Park School. Only Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School scored higher among Essex schools that do not select by ability.
- 12th: Moulsham High School.
- 22nd to 27th: The Boswells School, St John Payne, Great Baddow High and Chelmer Valley High.
- 41st and 47th: The Sandon School and William de Ferrers School.
- 62nd: Hylands School.
Beaulieu Park opened in 2018. Its admissions rules in the county’s directory rank applicants by siblings, staff and distance within its priority area, with no ability test. (Essex County Council, secondary admissions policies 2027/28)
Chelmsford is joint top in Essex
The DfE also publishes a figure for every district, counting pupils by where they live rather than where they go to school.
- 2,121 Chelmsford pupils finished Year 11 at a state school this summer
- Their average Attainment 8 was 51.2, against 46.2 for England and 46.3 for the East of England
- 53.7% got grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 46.3% for England
Brentwood also scored 51.2, so the two share top place among Essex’s 12 districts. Chelmsford is joint 38th of 297 districts in England.
| District | Attainment 8 | Grade 5+ English and maths |
|---|---|---|
| Brentwood | 51.2 | 56.2% |
| Chelmsford | 51.2 | 53.7% |
| Uttlesford | 49.4 | 52.0% |
| Colchester | 47.3 | 48.9% |
| Braintree | 44.8 | 44.6% |
| Basildon | 42.6 | 39.7% |
| Maldon | 42.1 | 38.1% |
The grade 4 pass rate fell
The district’s grade 5+ share edged up, from 53.2% in 2025 to 53.7%. But the share getting at least a grade 4 in both English and maths fell from 74.6% to 71.3%. England’s was flat, at 64.9% then 64.8%.
At individual schools:
- The Beaulieu Park School rose at grade 5+, from 62.6% to 77.7%.
- Chelmer Valley High School rose from 43.1% to 50.0% at grade 5+, and from 45.3 to 48.0 on Attainment 8.
- Hylands School has risen two years running: Attainment 8 went from 32.6 in 2024 to 37.8 in 2025 and 40.3 this year. Nearly half its pupils, 45.2%, are eligible for free school meals, the highest share of any secondary in the district.
- Great Baddow High School fell from 55.8% to 39.8% at grade 5+, and from 77.5% to 69.3% at grade 4+.
- St John Payne fell from 76.2% to 65.8% at grade 4+.
- Moulsham High School came down from 58.3 to 54.8 on Attainment 8.
- The two grammars were level, as they are most years.
One year’s change at a school of 200 pupils can turn on a few dozen results, so a single fall is not a trend.
Poorer pupils do worse here than across England
The district figures split pupils by disadvantage. The DfE counts a pupil as disadvantaged if they had free school meals at any point in the last six years, or have been in care.
| Pupils living in Chelmsford | Pupils | Attainment 8 | Grade 5+ English and maths |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disadvantaged | 346 | 34.9 | 25.4% |
| Not disadvantaged | 1,775 | 54.4 | 59.2% |
| England, disadvantaged | 35.6 | 27.6% | |
| England, not disadvantaged | 50.7 | 54.3% |
Chelmsford’s disadvantaged pupils scored a little below disadvantaged pupils nationally, even though the district as a whole is well above average. The gap at grade 5+ is 33.8 percentage points in Chelmsford, against 26.7 across England.
What it means for you
- Applying for a secondary place for September 2027? The Essex deadline is Saturday 31 October 2026, and offers go out on 1 March 2027. Apply through Essex County Council’s admissions site and use all six preferences, the council says.
- Demand is very uneven. The county’s admissions directory gives the applications each school received for September 2026, counting every preference:
| School | Places for September 2027 | Applications for 2026, all preferences |
|---|---|---|
| Great Baddow High School | 250 | 1,127 |
| Moulsham High School | 270 | 1,124 |
| The Beaulieu Park School | 120 | 1,073 |
| The Boswells School | 248 | 865 |
| Chelmer Valley High School | 232 | 803 |
| King Edward VI Grammar School | 150 | 738 |
| The Sandon School | 216 | 711 |
| St John Payne Catholic School | 190 | 650 |
| Chelmsford County High School for Girls | 180 | 601 |
| William de Ferrers School | 225 | 424 |
| Hylands School | 180 | 112 |
- Look at more than one number. Attainment 8 reflects who a school takes in as well as how it teaches. Progress 8, which adjusts for pupils’ primary school results, is not published for 2025 or 2026, because those year groups sat no Key Stage 2 tests: they were cancelled in 2020 and 2021.
- The figures can still change. Corrections schools ask for this autumn go into revised figures later in the year.
- The DfE’s Compare School Performance site has not been updated with 2026 results. Each school’s figures are in the DfE’s statistics release.
Term dates for the year ahead are on our Chelmsford school term dates page.
Sources
- Department for Education, Key stage 4 performance 2025/26 (provisional), published 15 October 2026: performance tables schools data and local authority district data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final figures for the comparisons).
- Department for Education, Get Information about Schools, register download of 20 October 2026, for each school’s district and free school meals share.
- Essex County Council, Secondary admissions policies directory 2027/2028 (hosted by St John Payne Catholic School), for the closing date, places and applications.
Have your say