Cheshire West's 2,300 A-level students recorded a 98 per cent pass rate. Here is what each Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich school published itself.
More than 2,300 students at schools and colleges across Cheshire West and Chester collected A-level and other level 3 results on Thursday 13 August, and the council’s own account of the day puts the provisional A-level pass rate across the borough at 98 per cent, with 11 per cent achieving A* grades.
That figure is provisional and covers every school and college in the borough together, from Neston to Winsford. It also covers only part of the day: students in Cheshire West also picked up BTEC, International Baccalaureate and T Level results on the same morning.
Below is what each school and college in the Chester Online area published about its own results, taken from the announcement on its own website. The measures are not the same from one school to the next, which is the first thing worth knowing about results day: each institution chooses which slice of its grades to lead with, so a headline percentage at one school cannot be read against a headline percentage at another.
Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College, Northwich
The largest single set of published figures in the area came from Northwich. Sir John Deane’s says this was its strongest year on record: 20.9 per cent of all A-level entries were awarded an A*, its highest ever proportion, giving 565 A* grades in total, an increase of 50 on last year. It also reports 82.6 per cent of A-level entries at A* to B, which it calls a new college record, and 52.7 per cent of all entries at A or A*.
Its vocational results were higher still. The college says every BTEC entry achieved at least a Merit, and 97.4 per cent were awarded a Distinction or Distinction*.
Cheshire College South & West
The college reports a third consecutive year of an improved high-grade profile at A level, with 15 A-level subjects achieving a 100 per cent pass rate. It names law, mathematics, English language and psychology among its strongest subjects. Read these as college-wide numbers rather than local ones: the college teaches at four campuses, Chester and Ellesmere Port along with Crewe and Macclesfield, and its published figures cover all of them.
On the vocational side, 99 per cent of BTEC students achieved their qualification. Its T Level students, who combine classroom study with a 45-day industry placement, recorded an overall pass rate of 94.2 per cent, with five courses passing at 100 per cent. One student who took maths, biology and chemistry achieved three A*s and is going to the University of Cambridge to read veterinary medicine.
Queen’s Park High School, Handbridge
Queen’s Park says these were the best A-level outcomes in the school’s history, with more than one in five grades awarded at A* to A. Leavers are heading to Oxford, Durham, York, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, and the school also points to strong results in vocational courses alongside the traditional academic subjects.
Upton-by-Chester High School
Upton-by-Chester reports that almost a third of grades were awarded at A to A*, and more than 60 per cent at A* to B. Destinations published by the school include Oxford, Cardiff, Manchester, King’s College London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Liverpool John Moores, Leeds Beckett and Bangor, along with higher apprenticeships and specialist training routes.
The King’s School, Chester
The independent school on Wrexham Road reports 64 A* grades across 25 subjects, with ten departments recording more than half of their grades at A* or A. It names three students with places at Oxford and Cambridge, one of them a 2025 leaver, and lists offers for medicine, dentistry, law, economics and engineering.
Abbey Gate College, Saighton
Abbey Gate reports an increase in top grades at A* to C and a positive value-added measure, but does not publish percentages. It says almost half of the year group completed a Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and a similar number completed an Extended Project Qualification, and that leavers are going on to drama school, flight school, degree apprenticeships and, in one case, directly into employment with the police.
Christleton High School
Christleton has published a results announcement on its website, headed Christleton Sixth Form Students Celebrate another year of excellent A-Level Results. It does not carry percentage figures in the same form as the schools above.
Other secondary schools and sixth forms in the area had not published their own 2026 A-level figures on their websites when this was written. We report results only from a school’s own announcement, so we have left those out rather than repeat numbers we cannot check at source.
What it means for you
GCSE results land on Thursday 20 August. That is the next date in the diary for Cheshire West families, one week after A-level day, and it is confirmed on the exam calendars of local providers including Sir John Deane’s.
If you think a grade is wrong, go through the school, not the exam board. Reviews of marking and access to scripts are requested by the centre that entered you, with your written consent, under the rules set out by the Joint Council for Qualifications. Priority reviews, for students whose university place depends on the outcome, close first, so contact your school or college exams officer rather than waiting. Ring the school even in the holidays: sixth forms staff the phones through results fortnight for exactly this.
Clearing is still open. UCAS explains how clearing works and lists vacancies; the council also points students to the National Careers Service for advice on apprenticeships and other routes if university is not the plan.
If you are moving away to study, it is worth checking the journey home before term starts rather than on the first weekend everyone travels. Our guide to train times from Chester to London covers the direct Avanti services and what the fares actually cost.
We will cover GCSE results on 20 August the same way: figures from each school’s own announcement, with the source linked.
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