Community Celebrates A-level Results Day

Results are being received across England, Northern Ireland and Wales today as the Joint Council for Qualifications publishes the 2026 A-level and Level 3 figures.  For every envelope opened and every screen refreshed, there is a young person who has spent two years working towards this moment, as well a school or college workforce that has stood beside them throughout. Community Union offers its congratulations to them all.

The Figures 

More than one million A-level, AS and Vocational and Technical qualifications (VTQ) results were awarded today, up very slightly from 2025 due to a larger cohort, and split 54% female and 46% male entries. Mathematics remains the most-taken A level, with 115,380 entries (up 3.9% on last year) continuing its meteoric rise in popularity, with a 20% increase in entries over the past five years. Psychology remains behind it in second place. Economics has seen a 10.5% increase in entries over 2025 and is now the fifth most popular subject with Politics also seeing a significant increase (11.9%) in entries.

Modern foreign languages have stabilised somewhat with French increasing very slightly to 6,413 entries, Spanish up 2.5% to 7,817 entries and German up 4.8% to 2,072 entries.  Welsh first and second language entries are up by more than 20% with 425 candidates taking the language.

Top grades (A*–A) remain very similar to last year at 28.5% with 79.3% of entries achieving a C or above.  The overall pass rate held steady at 97.5%.

Around 300,005 Level 3 Vocational and Technical Qualifications were also awarded, with more than 28,000 students receiving the top grades. Business, Administration and Law remains the largest subject area issuing 53,756 certificates, followed by Leisure, Travel & Tourism, and Social Science.

19,665 students received T Level results, up 65% from 2025, with 18.1% students achieving distinction or above and an overall pass rate of 92.6%.  This is the fifth year T Levels have been awarded.

A Cohort That Has Earned These Results

These results deserve to be read in context. It is easy to forget that the world was in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago. This cohort had their transition from primary to secondary school significantly disrupted due to multiple lockdowns and had to miss those vital first months in a new school. Whatever grades are printed on paper today, they do not capture the resilience it has taken to get here.

That resilience has been tested further by pressures well beyond the classroom.  The cost-of-living crisis has reached into family homes and college canteens alike, with 3 in 5 young people reporting that financial worries affected their revision. Referrals for young people’s mental health support have surged to record highs over the past two years, and many students have sat these exams while managing anxiety, low mood or the aftershocks of the pandemic years – often with support services that are stretched thin and waiting lists that stretch longer.

A Workforce Under Strain

None of this year’s achievements happened by accident,  they happened because educators and staff showed up despite a recruitment and retention crisis that has left too many departments understaffed. Alongside this, the workforce has faced a real-terms funding settlement that has not kept pace with the demands placed on schools and colleges, and workload pressures that continue to push experienced teachers, lecturers and support staff out of the profession altogether.

Teaching assistants and other support staff, in particular, have carried a growing share of the pastoral and additional needs support that this cohort has required, frequently on pay that does not reflect the skill or responsibility involved.  Community Union continues to call on the Government to properly fund schools and colleges, to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis at its root, and to ensure that no member of staff is left carrying more than is sustainable.

Helen Osgood, Community’s Director of Operations and National Officer for Education & Early Years, said:

“Every result published today is really two stories: a young person’s achievement, and the quiet, sustained work of the adults who helped them reach it.  To every teacher, lecturer, teaching assistant and member of school and college staff who has planned lessons, marked mocks, run revision sessions, and simply been there for a worried student – thank you!  Your work rarely makes the headlines, but it is written into every grade on results day.

“And to the students who have navigated more disruption than any cohort should have to, and who have kept going anyway.  Whatever grade is in front of you today, that persistence is an achievement in its own right. Community is proud to congratulate you all.”