Stockport A level results 2026: every figure published

Stockport’s sixth forms and colleges handed out A level results on Thursday 13 August, and four of them have now published what their students got. Aquinas College is calling it its best ever year, with 30 per cent of A level grades at A* or A and a 99 per cent pass rate. Cheadle Hulme School reported a 100 per cent pass rate and its strongest set of top grades in five years. Stockport Grammar School said 92 per cent of its pupils achieved A* to C. At Marple Sixth Form, 89 per cent of students got into their first choice university.

Every figure below comes from the school or college that awarded it, and the national comparisons come from Ofqual’s official statistics, published the same morning.

Aquinas College: 30 per cent at the top grades

Aquinas, on Nangreave Road, published four A level figures: 30 per cent of grades at A*/A, 63 per cent at A* to B, a 99 per cent pass rate, and on the vocational side 77 per cent of grades at distinction or distinction*, with a 99.8 per cent pass rate. (Best Ever Results at Aquinas College, 13 August 2026)

Principal Jo Dommett said that “following on from our best ever results last year, it’s fantastic to see the class of 2026 do even better”, and singled out science and maths: the college says it was the highest performing college in the north west for STEM last year and that this year’s results have gone past that. Vice principal Andy Bailey said 80 per cent of the college’s medicine and veterinary applicants secured their offers, and that this was its highest ever share of students getting a first choice university place.

The right yardstick for Aquinas is other sixth form colleges, not schools. Across England, sixth form colleges awarded 25.6 per cent of A level results at grade A or above this summer, so 30 per cent is comfortably above that group and above both the North West figure of 26.5 per cent and the England-wide 28.3 per cent. (Qualification results in England: summer 2026, Ofqual, 13 August 2026)

Cheadle Hulme School: best top-grade year in its published run

Cheadle Hulme School publishes a full five-year table, which makes it the easiest set in the borough to judge. This year 144 candidates sat 499 subject entries. The pass rate was 100 per cent, 80 per cent of entries were graded A* to B and 92 per cent A* to C. The school’s headline figure is 48 per cent of A level and BTEC grades at A* to A. (Exam Results, Cheadle Hulme School)

The A* to B share is the highest in the school’s published run: 80 per cent this year against 76 in 2025, 69 in 2024, 74 in 2023 and 77 in 2022. The pass rate has also crept up from 99.8, 99.1 and 99.0 per cent in the three previous years to a clean 100.

For context, independent schools across England awarded 48.6 per cent of results at grade A or above and 89.4 per cent at C or above, so Cheadle Hulme’s year sits close to its sector’s average on top grades and above it on C and above.

Stockport Grammar: 92 per cent at A* to C, up from 86

Stockport Grammar School on Buxton Road reported that 92 per cent of pupils achieved A* to C, against 86 per cent in 2023, and that 42 per cent achieved A* to A. Ninety-one per cent were accepted onto their chosen course, with destinations including Cambridge, Manchester and Liverpool universities and the Royal Northern College of Music. (A Level Results: Congratulations to the Class of 2026, 13 August 2026)

One point of care with those numbers: the school’s figures count pupils, not entries, so they cannot be set directly against Ofqual’s national percentages, which count individual results. That is why we have left them out of the chart above rather than putting a bar next to figures they do not match.

Not everyone is going to university. The school’s deputy head of school is starting a nuclear submarine degree apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce. Head Sarah Capewell said “success looks different for every pupil”, and head of sixth form David Stone said the collective result contained “so many individual successes”.

Marple Sixth Form: 89 per cent got their first choice

Marple Sixth Form is part of the Trafford and Stockport College Group, alongside Stockport College, Cheadle College and Trafford College. The group did not publish an overall grade profile, but it did publish the number that matters most to a leaver: 89 per cent of Marple students were awarded a place at their first choice university, which the group compares with a national UCAS average of 82 per cent. (Trafford and Stockport College Group students celebrate exceptional results)

On T Levels, the newer technical qualification, the group reported a 90 per cent completion rate, above the national average, and a 100 per cent pass rate, with almost all of those students moving into work, apprenticeships or further study. James Scott, principal and chief executive of the group, said the range of study options now open to students “is remarkable”.

Why there is no single Stockport figure

You will see league tables this week ranking council areas. Treat them carefully. Ofqual does publish A level outcomes by local authority district, in an interactive map covering 2019 to 2026, but the map’s own explanation is that “all grades and students have been assigned to geographical areas based on the postcodes recorded for exam centres in the National Centre Number (NCN) register”. (Map of A level grade outcomes by administrative areas in England, Ofqual)

In other words, a district is credited with the results of the schools and colleges inside its boundary, not the results of the young people who live there. Stockport shares a border with Manchester, Tameside, Cheshire East and Derbyshire, and its postcodes cross those lines, so a single borough figure describes the centres that sit here rather than the households that do.

Nationally, 835,950 A level results were issued to 320,505 students this summer, and 28.3 per cent of results in England were at grade A or above, against 28.2 per cent last year. In the North West it was 26.5 per cent, fractionally down on 2025’s 26.6 per cent, while the share at C or above rose from 78.2 to 78.4 per cent.

What it means for you

If your results were not what you needed, Clearing is open until 19 October 2026, and you can apply through it if you are not holding an offer and a course still has places. (What is Clearing?, UCAS)

If you think a grade is wrong, you cannot ask the exam board yourself. A review of marking is requested by your school or college’s exams officer, with your written consent, and a student or parent who applies directly is told the application is invalid. Deadlines are set by each board: Pearson Edexcel’s for a review of marking on this summer’s A levels is 24 September 2026. Be clear about the risk before you ask, because a review can lower a mark as well as raise it. (Post-results services and key dates, Pearson Edexcel)

GCSE results follow on Thursday 20 August, and we will do the same job on them: the figures each Stockport school publishes, set against the benchmark that actually fits it.