Stellar GCSE Results at Eltham College as Top Grades Soar
- Results are up significantly on every measure against last year’s already record-breaking performance, with top grades the biggest climbers
- Grade 9 – the highest available – becomes the most commonly achieved (59% of all results, up from 45% last year and almost doubling in the last three years)
- Grades 9 and 8 (A* equivalents) represent an exceptional 83% of all GCSE results – up from 71% in 2025
- 94% of all grades were 9,8 or 7 (A*/A equivalent) – up from 88% last year
- Over one-quarter (26%) of students achieved nine or more Grade 9s
There was joy all around at Eltham College this morning, as students collected exceptional GCSE results – smashing last year’s already record-breaking performance. Grades were up across the board, and in particular at the highest end. An astonishing 59% of all GCSE grades achieved this year were Grade 9 – up 14 percentage points against 2025’s final result, and continuing the pattern of tremendous improvement of the last three years which has seen the proportion attaining this top mark almost double since 2023, when it represented 31% of the total.
Among the Year 11 students celebrating their achievements today were 30 – more than one-quarter of the cohort – whose results included at least nine at Grade 9, 23 of whom took home ten or more of this highest grade. Four students amassed 11 Grade 9s, while one – Emilio – who first joined Eltham’s Junior School in Year 6, achieved an exceptional 12 GCSEs at Grade 9.
No fewer than 69% of all students achieved a clean sweep of Grades 9 to 7 – equivalent to the former A*/A benchmark. In total, more than 1000 results at grades 9, 8 and 7 were attained by a cohort of fewer than 120 students.
These results mark a continuation of the extraordinary three-year trajectory of the school’s results at GCSE, which has seen the proportion of Grades 9 to 7 increase from 81% in 2023 to 94% and Grades 9-8 rise from 58% to 83%, as well the near doubling of the percentage of Grade 9s from 31% three years ago.
Results were superb across the full range of subjects, with a particularly impressive showing in STEM (62% of results at Grade 9) and Humanities (65% Grade 9, and an exceptional 99% of results graded 9-7). The proportion of Grades 9-7 in English Language and Literature was also an exemplary 97%. On a subject-by-subject basis, highlights include Mathematics (62% Grade 9), Art (93% Grades 9/8 and 100% 9-7), Biology (83% Grades 9/8, 96% 9-7), Chemistry (60% Grade 9), DT (89% Grades 9/8), French (97% Grades 9-7), Geography (92% Grades 9/8), German (87% Grade 9), History (70% Grade 9 and 100% 9-7), Latin (95% Grades 9/8), Mandarin (100% Grades 9/8), Physics (68% Grade 9) and Philosophy and Theology (100% Grades 9-7).
Headmaster Guy Sanderson says: “I could not be more delighted for this hardworking and talented year group. Their record-breaking results are both richly deserved and all the more extraordinary when you consider the huge commitment this cohort makes, week in week out, to Eltham’s co-curricular life. Amongst their number are fine actors, sportsmen and -women of the highest order, and superb musicians, all of whom have represented – and entertained – their school handsomely alongside their studies. We can’t wait to welcome them now into our Sixth Form.
I send my congratulations and thanks to each of them, and to the fabulous staff team whose dedication and inspiration underpin these achievements.”
