GCSE results 2026: Brentwood School just under 60% at 7-9

Year 11 pupils across Brentwood collected their GCSE results on Thursday 20 August. Three schools in the borough have since published how their year groups did. Three others had put nothing up when we checked on Saturday 22 August.

Nationally, Ofqual issued 5,720,045 GCSE results in England to 1,047,750 students at 6,040 schools and colleges. Across all ages, 21.8 per cent of results were graded 7 or above and 67.0 per cent 4 or above.

That all-ages figure is the one usually quoted, and it is the wrong yardstick for a Year 11 cohort. It includes adults and post-16 students resitting English and maths, and they pull the pass rate down. Ofqual publishes a separate line for 16-year-olds. That is the number to hold a school against: 23.1 per cent of results at grade 7 or above, and 70.7 per cent at grade 4 or above. The East of England’s 16-year-olds landed on exactly those two figures this year.

There is a second trap in comparing schools with each other. Ofqual also splits results by type of school, and the gaps are wide:

• independent schools: 47.1 per cent of results at grade 7 or above
• grammar schools: 63.2 per cent
• free schools: 21.7 per cent
• local authority maintained comprehensives: 20.1 per cent
• all state-funded centres: 20.6 per cent

Brentwood School is independent. Becket Keys is a free school. Read against the right benchmark, both beat their sector this summer.

Brentwood School: 17 pupils on 70 points or more

Brentwood School on Ingrave Road says almost 60 per cent of its results were graded 7 to 9, which it describes as the equivalent of A and A*. That is well clear of the 47.1 per cent independent schools managed nationally.

Seventeen pupils scored 70 points or more. The school counts a pupil’s best eight results, so 72 points is the maximum, and at least eight pupils in the year reached it.

The school charges fees and selects its intake, so its grade profile is not comparable with a comprehensive’s, and none of these figures is a league table position. The Department for Education’s verified Key Stage 4 performance data for 2026 is published later in the academic year.

Brentwood School led its announcement on what the year group does outside lessons as much as on grades. It says the cohort includes:

• 70 pupils working as peer mentors, supporting younger pupils
• 10 pupils awarded places in the National Youth Theatre
• a gold medallist from the World Karate Championships held in Malta in March 2026
• a Federation Master and former British under-16 chess champion
• a pupil on England Hockey’s national player pathway, and another training with the GB Ski Team

The school also says a Year 11 pupil who became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history sat his GCSEs there before joining Arsenal, and that two other boys in the year secured Premier League scholarships, at Tottenham Hotspur and Ipswich Town. We are not naming pupils. The school itself published only first names and initials.

Head of Year Elle Crowley said seeing pupils collect their results “has been a moment of immense pride”. Headmaster Michael Bond said the year group “can be rightly proud” of results that were “just reward for the hard work and perseverance they have shown”.

Becket Keys: a record 92 per cent entered for the EBacc

Becket Keys Church of England School in Brentwood published no overall pass rate. It did give two figures that can be read against the national picture.

• Almost a third of all grades awarded were 7 or above. The free school average is 21.7 per cent, and the figure for all 16-year-olds nationally is 23.1 per cent
• 59 per cent of its pupils achieved at least one grade 7 or above

The school says more pupils in this cohort achieved a grade 4 pass or better in both English and maths than in any previous year, without giving the percentage. Its stronger claim is about breadth. A record 92 per cent of the year group was entered for the English Baccalaureate. That is the combination of English, maths, science, a language and either history or geography. More pupils passed all five EBacc subjects than ever before.

That matters more than it sounds. EBacc entry is a decision a school makes about what its pupils study from Year 9, not a qualification in itself, and entry rates vary widely between comprehensives. A 92 per cent entry rate means almost the whole year group was put in for a language.

Headteacher Andy Scott-Evans said the school was “delighted to see continued growth in the number of students successfully achieving the EBacc and studying languages”. Colin Mackinlay, chief executive of the Russell Education Trust, which runs the school, said record numbers were staying on at Becket Keys sixth form. Chair of governors Iain Gunn said the increase in EBacc attainment “reflects both the ambition of our students and the commitment of staff”.

Anglo European: destinations, not a grade profile

Anglo European School in Ingatestone published a press release with no percentage grade breakdown at all. As with its A level release earlier this month, it led on breadth and on where pupils go next.

The school says 94 per cent of its pupils take four or more courses in its sixth form. It also says it is now the only state school in Essex offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma to all pupils who want it. Year 11 leavers choose between four sixth form routes there: the IB Diploma, the IB Career-related Programme, four A levels, or three A levels with an added International Baccalaureate Standard course or an EPQ.

Languages are the school’s specialism, and it says its linguists took multiple grade 9s across the range of languages studied, Mandarin and Russian among them. Year 11 year leader Mr Mitchell said the school was “delighted to celebrate the exceptional achievements” of the departing year group.

Three schools published nothing

Checked on Saturday 22 August, two days after results day, these borough secondary schools had published no results information on their own websites:

• Shenfield High School, which posts termly newsletters rather than news items, the most recent covering the summer term
• St Martin’s School in Hutton, whose website points to the Department for Education’s compare-school-performance service instead
• Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School, whose latest news page carried nothing newer than February

That is not a judgement on their results. Publishing a results release is a communications decision, and plenty of state schools across Essex make a point of not putting grade profiles out on the day. It does mean the only Brentwood figures available this weekend come from a fee-charging school and one free school, which is exactly the sort of gap the DfE’s verified data fills in the autumn.

What it means for you

If a grade looks wrong, the route is through the school, not the exam board. Schools request reviews of marking on a pupil’s behalf, and the JCQ deadline for reviews of results this summer is 24 September. The same date is the deadline for a school to request a copy of a script. Ask the exams officer this week rather than in September, because schools need the pupil’s consent and time to submit.

If your child missed grade 4 in English or maths, they will have to keep studying it. The Department for Education’s 16 to 19 condition of funding for 2026 to 2027 sets out what that means. A pupil with a grade 3 must study towards the GCSE again. A pupil with grade 2 or below can take either the GCSE or a Functional Skills level 2 qualification. Sixth forms and colleges build this in, so ask how it is timetabled before accepting a place.

Anyone still without a post-16 place can talk to the National Careers Service, which is free in England and takes calls and webchat. Brentwood Borough Council is also running a Jobs, Skills and Volunteering Event at the Brentwood Centre on 7 October. It has a section this year for 18 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training.

Our A level results coverage has the same three schools’ sixth form figures from earlier this month.