England's 2026 A-level Results: Record Highs, Record Gaps
England's 2026 A-level results, published on 13 August, show record rates of A and A* grades nationwide. But that headline figure conceals a regional gap that has reached its widest point on record, driven by surging performance in London and stagnation or decline elsewhere.
In London, 32.7% of A-level candidates secured A* or A grades in 2026, up 6 percentage points on the previous year. In the East Midlands, the share fell from 23.8% in 2025 to 23.1%. The north-east edged up marginally, from 22.9% to roughly 23.1%. The gap in top grades between London and the north-east grew to 9.6 percentage points, the largest since the pandemic. In 2019, that gap stood at 3.9 points. The gap in A* grades alone between London and the north-east rose from 2 percentage points in 2019 to 5.1 points in 2026. The Guardian
The divergence is not a single-year anomaly. London and the South East have consistently achieved the highest average point scores within the A-level cohort, according to the Department for Education's 16-to-18 performance data published in July 2026. London was also the highest performing region at Key Stage 2 — the assessment taken at the end of primary school — in 2025, with 70% of pupils meeting the expected standard. That attainment advantage at primary level feeds into the secondary and post-16 pipeline, compounding regional differences by the time candidates sit A-levels. Explore Education Statistics
The downstream effect on university access is already visible. On A-level results day in 2025, 24.9% of 18-year-olds from the north-east secured a university place, compared with 43.4% of 18-year-olds from London. Gov.uk
The structural roots of London's advantage are long-standing. Tony Blair's London Challenge, launched in 2003, is widely credited with initiating the transformation of the capital's schools. The programme combined targeted intervention, leadership development and collaborative school networks, and its effects are still visible in attainment data more than two decades later. The Department for Education's current equivalent, the Rise teams (regional improvement for standards and excellence), focus on areas and schools where performance is weakest. A proposal in the government's schools white paper would go further, using household income to vary school funding rates according to the level of disadvantage — meaning schools in poorer areas would receive more per pupil. The Guardian
Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, an organisation representing 1,150 schools in the region, has been a persistent voice flagging the structural disadvantages facing northern schools, from teacher recruitment challenges to the concentration of deprivation in specific local authority areas. Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, has pointed to the compounding effect of geographic inequality on intergenerational mobility — the likelihood that children's life chances are shaped by where they grow up. The Guardian
The political salience of the divide has sharpened. Andy Burnham has placed regional inequality at the top of his agenda as prime minister. Whether the government's funding proposals and Rise team interventions can reverse a trend that has widened over seven years is the central policy question these results pose. The Guardian
Looking at the institutional landscape, the DfE's 16-to-18 performance data shows that comparisons across different types of schools are not straightforward. The department itself states that simple comparisons between multi-academy trusts (MATs — groups of schools run by a single trust) and other state-funded schools and colleges are not meaningful, given the different historic performance profiles of converter academies (largely high-performing schools that chose to convert), sponsored academies (previously under-performing schools required to join a trust), free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges. In the 2024/25 academic cohort, the average point score in converter academies was 35.23, compared with 31.56 in sponsored academies. Free schools recorded the highest MAT-sector attainment at 37.18 average points, while studio schools (29.65) and UTCs (25.28) had the lowest. MAT performance data at 16-to-18 is only produced for trusts with at least three academies with results in the relevant cohort, where those academies have been with the MAT for at least three academic years. Explore Education Statistics
The broader context here is that the 2026 results crystallise a trajectory that has been building since the pandemic's grade inflation years, when teacher-assessed grading inflated results nationwide. London's schools were better positioned to absorb and recover from the disruption of 2020–2022, benefiting from deeper teacher labour markets, higher concentrations of high-performing academy trusts, and a primary-sector foundation strengthened by two decades of targeted investment. Regions like the north-east and East Midlands entered the pandemic with thinner institutional capacity and have not closed the gap since. The proposed shift to household-income-based funding differentials would be the most direct policy lever yet attempted to redirect resources toward the regions where attainment has flatlined. Whether it arrives in time to alter the 2027 results cycle, or whether it becomes another initiative blunted by implementation drag, is the question that will define the next phase of this story.
