Banbury A level results 2026: what two schools published

Sixth formers across the Banbury area collected their A level results on Thursday 13 August, and two schools in the town have published figures of their own. We report only what schools put out themselves, so this piece will grow if others follow.

Blessed George Napier

At Blessed George Napier Catholic School on Addison Road, more than 45 per cent of all grades were A* to B. The school singled out physics, where 55 per cent of pupils were awarded the top grades of A* or A. Leavers are going on to Oxford, St Andrews, Birmingham and Southampton among others, to read subjects the school lists as ranging from biochemistry to international relations, and including architecture, economics, cyber security, law, politics, nursing, criminology, psychology and creative writing. (Blessed George Napier Catholic School, A Level Exam Success, 13 August 2026)

Wykham Park Academy

Wykham Park Academy, which forms the Banbury Aspirations Campus with Futures Institute Banbury, did not publish percentages but named six leavers and where they are going. Between them they are heading to the University of Reading to read law, Westminster and Nottingham for business management, Brighton for journalism and Leicester for optometry, and one is taking an integrated apprenticeship in civil engineering with Coventry. The academy described the results as the culmination of seven years of work across both schools on the campus. (Wykham Park Academy, Fantastic set of A-Level results for Wykham Park, 13 August 2026)

Neither set of figures has been independently verified. School-level results are published by the school itself on the day, and the government’s own performance tables, which allow proper comparison between sixth forms, do not appear until the following year.

The national picture

Nationally, results barely moved. The Department for Education reported that 28.3 per cent of A level entries in England were graded A or A*, up 0.2 percentage points on 2025, and that 78.1 per cent were graded C or above, up 0.4 points. Grades at C and above are 2.7 points higher than in 2019, before the pandemic. That puts the 2025 equivalents at 28.1 per cent and 77.7 per cent, and the 2019 C-and-above figure at 75.4 per cent.

Maths had a strong year: the highest number of students ever received an A level maths result, up 3.7 per cent on 2025, with more A and A* grades awarded in the subject, up 0.6 points. Entries across science, technology, engineering and maths subjects were up 3.7 per cent.

The bigger change was outside A levels. Almost 20,000 students completed a T Level this year, up from almost 12,000 in 2025, a rise of more than 65 per cent, with a pass rate above 90 per cent. Take-up of construction training through vocational technical qualifications rose by nearly 20 per cent. Acceptances onto higher education courses were up 2 per cent, and 194,800 English 18-year-olds were accepted by their first-choice university, up 1 per cent. (Department for Education, Number of T Level pupils hits record high as maths A Levels rise, 13 August 2026)

What it means for you

If the grades were not what you needed, Clearing is open. UCAS runs Clearing from 2 July to 19 October 2026, and you can use it if you are not holding an offer and a course still has places, including if you applied after 30 June or turned down the offers you had. (UCAS, What is Clearing?)

If a grade looks wrong, the request has to go through the school or college rather than direct to the exam board, so the first call is to the exams officer, and there are deadlines that run through the autumn. Ask before the end of term rather than in September.

Banbury and Bicester students visiting London universities during Clearing can usually do it in a day: see our guide to Banbury train times and fares to London for what the journey costs and how long it takes.

If you know of another Banbury or Bicester sixth form that has published its own 2026 figures, tell us and we will add them.