Reigate Grammar put nearly half of all grades at 9 and St Bede's reached 92% in English and maths. Four borough schools reported records, four published nothing.

Four schools in Reigate & Banstead published GCSE figures on results day, Thursday 20 August, and all four called it a record year. Four others published nothing at all.

Here is what each school actually reported, taken from its own website, followed by the national benchmarks the figures should and should not be set against.

What the borough’s schools reported

Reigate Grammar School (independent, Reigate Road) said nearly half of all grades were awarded at grade 9, with 74% at grades 9-8 and 90% at grades 9-7. It called the results its best ever. Almost half of all grades in Maths, Further Maths, Biology and Physics were at grade 9, and Further Maths reached 98% at grades 9-7. Every entry in Art, Photography and Design Technology was graded 9-7. English Language reached 90% at 9-7.

Headmaster Shaun Fenton said the school was “enormously proud”, and that what pleased him most was “the breadth of their achievement” across sciences, maths, humanities, languages and creative subjects (Reigate Grammar School).

St Bede’s School (Redhill, Carlton Road) also reported its best ever results. Headteacher Adam Powell wrote that around 40% of grades were at 7 or higher, the highest proportion the school has recorded. He gave two headline figures:

  • 92% of students achieved grade 4 or above in English
  • 92% achieved grade 4 or above in maths

More than half of students reached grades 9-7 in the arts, languages and sciences. Powell said staff were “elated with the Year 11 outcomes” (St Bede’s School).

Merstham Park School (Taynton Drive, Merstham) reported its best ever grade 5 and above results in English and maths. That measure improved by more than three percentage points on last year. The school also recorded its highest ever pass rate in English.

Headteacher Cullum Mitchell listed record results in six further subjects: Drama, Design & Technology, Food Technology, PE, Geography and History (Merstham Park School).

Dunottar School (independent, Reigate) closed its centenary year with 52% of all grades at 9-7, up on last year, and 12% at grade 9. Headmaster Mark Tottman said he was “equally proud of both the absolute grades and the value-added results”, and that the school’s value added was “among the strongest the school has ever recorded” (Dunottar School).

Four schools published nothing, and one was candid about why

Oakwood School in Horley published a statement but no figures. Headteacher Mr A Cook congratulated students, then added a line that is unusual on results day.

“While today is rightly a time to celebrate our students, we are also being very honest and focused about what these results tell us,” he wrote (Oakwood School). He also thanked the previous headteacher, Mr Gladstone.

We checked three other borough secondaries on 22 August and found nothing on GCSE 2026:

  • The Beacon School, Banstead: latest news items dated May to July 2026
  • Reigate School, Woodhatch: news page carries weekly newsletters, the most recent dated 17 July 2026
  • Carrington School, Redhill: no results item on its news page

Carrington is the school many residents still know as The Warwick School; it was renamed in September 2021.

Schools are under no obligation to publish results, and not publishing says nothing about how a year group did. Some post later in the term, once the data is confirmed.

The numbers cannot be ranked against each other

It is tempting to line those percentages up. Do not. The four schools are not measuring the same thing:

  • Reigate Grammar and Dunottar report the percentage of grades at a level
  • St Bede’s reports the percentage of students reaching grade 4 in English and in maths
  • Merstham Park reports movement in grade 5 and above in English and maths, against its own previous year

A percentage of grades and a percentage of students are different statistics, and two of the four schools charge fees and select. Comparing them produces a league table of intake, not of teaching.

The benchmarks that are real

Ofqual updated its summer 2026 data tables on GCSE results day. There is still no local authority breakdown in them, so there is no official Reigate & Banstead figure to quote, and we will not invent one.

What the tables do give is the region and the type of school. For the South East:

Measure Grade 7 and above Grade 4 and above
South East, all ages 24.5% 69.9%
South East, 16-year-olds only 25.8% 73.2%

The second row is the fairer one for a Year 11 cohort. The all-ages figure includes college resits, and those drag it down: Ofqual’s table 16 shows 265,825 students, a quarter of everyone who received a GCSE result, sat exactly one GCSE, against 1.4% of 16-year-olds.

The South East barely moved in a year. In 2025 it was 24.6% at grade 7 and above and 70.0% at grade 4 and above for all ages (Ofqual data tables, summer 2026).

Type of school explains most of the gap

Horizontal bar chart of the percentage of GCSE results at grade 4 and above in England in summer 2026 by centre type: grammar schools 97.4 per cent, independent schools 88.4 per cent, local authority comprehensives 68.6 per cent, academies 68.2 per cent, all state-funded 66.1 per cent, secondary modern 64.9 per cent, sixth form colleges 32.2 per cent, further education establishments 17.6 per cent

England, summer 2026, percentage of results at grade 4 and above:

Centre type Grade 7 and above Grade 4 and above
Grammar schools 63.2% 97.4%
Independent schools 47.1% 88.4%
LA comprehensives 20.1% 68.6%
Academies 19.7% 68.2%
All state-funded 20.6% 66.1%
Secondary modern 16.8% 64.9%
Sixth form colleges 3.9% 32.2%
FE establishments 1.3% 17.6%

The bottom two rows are not failing institutions. They are where resits happen, taken mostly by students who did not reach grade 4 first time round, so their pass rates measure a different job entirely.

The top two rows are the honest context for Reigate Grammar’s and Dunottar’s figures. The middle rows are the context for St Bede’s, Merstham Park, Oakwood, Reigate School, Carrington and The Beacon. Set against 68.2% at academies, St Bede’s 92% in English and 92% in maths is a strong year by any reading.

What it means for you

If a grade looks wrong, the deadline is 24 September. Two services are available through the school, and both close on that date (JCQ post-results services):

  • Service 1, clerical re-check. Confirms marks were added and recorded correctly. Completed within 10 calendar days.
  • Service 2, review of marking. A reviewer checks the mark scheme was applied correctly. They do not re-mark the paper. Completed within 20 calendar days.

Three things families get wrong every year:

  1. The priority service does not cover GCSE. The 20 August priority deadline applies only to A level, AS and Level 3 vocational qualifications, so a GCSE student was never eligible for it.
  2. Requests go through the school’s exams officer, not direct to the exam board, and the school must hold written consent from the student, given after results were published.
  3. There is no grade protection. JCQ is explicit that marks and grades “may be lowered”. A review can move a grade down as well as up.

If English or maths needs a resit, the November series is the next chance. Pearson Edexcel’s final timetable puts English Language paper 1 on Tuesday 3 November and paper 2 on Thursday 5 November, both morning. Maths paper 1 is Wednesday 4 November, paper 2 Friday 6 November and paper 3 Monday 9 November, all morning, at both tiers (Pearson Edexcel November 2026 timetable). Entries are made by the school or college, so speak to the exams officer rather than the board.

Sixth form and college enrolment for most borough students happens in the days after results. St Bede’s has told its Year 11 that Year 12 enrolment is next week.

Sources

We do not name individual students or publish their grades, even where a school has done so.

More Reigate information: planning applications, council tax bands and bin collection days.