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GCSE English results in 2026

Results came out on 20 August 2026. Outcomes across all subjects barely moved, a larger share of 16-year-olds reached grade 4 in English Language, and a smaller share of students resitting it after 16 did.

News · 2 minute read

GCSE results for the summer 2026 exams were issued on Thursday 20 August 2026. Across all subjects in England, Ofqual reported 21.8% of results at grade 7 and above, against 21.7% in 2025, and 67.0% at grade 4 and above, 0.1 percentage points lower than in 2025.

English Language

  • Tes reported that 59.5% of all students reached grade 4 or above, down from 59.7% in 2025 and 61.6% in 2024. It was the fifth fall in a row since the peak of 2021.
  • Among 16-year-olds the rate went up, to 71.4% from 70.5% in 2025.
  • Among students aged 17 or older, most of them resitting, 19.8% reached grade 4, down from 20.9% in each of the two previous years. Ofqual put the figure for 17-year-olds resitting in England at 21.0%.
  • At the top end, Ofqual said the share at grade 7 and above fell by 0.3 percentage points.

English Literature

FFT Education Datalab’s analysis of the national figures found that the share of Literature grades at 7 and above fell by 0.4 percentage points, and that the share at grade 4 and above also fell.

AQA’s own figures

AQA publishes figures for its own candidates on results day. Its statistics for June 2026, marked as provisional pending enquiries about results, show:

  • English Literature (8702): 508,116 entries, with 19.3% at grade 7 and above and 73.1% at grade 4 and above.
  • English Language (8700): 623,435 entries, with 16.6% at grade 7 and above and 63.1% at grade 4 and above.

What it means for English departments

For a department entering students with AQA, the AQA figures above are the closest comparison for its own results. Nationally, outcomes were stable: Ofqual described results at grade 7 and above across all subjects as “almost identical to 2025”.

The widest gap is between first attempts and resits. About seven in ten 16-year-olds reached grade 4 in English Language. Among students aged 17 or older, about one in five did. FE Week reported 187,558 post-16 resit entries in English in 2026, up from 175,118 in 2025.

What happens next

AQA’s November 2026 resits are English Language Paper 1 on Tuesday 3 November and Paper 2 on Thursday 5 November, both in the morning. Results for the June 2027 exams reach students on Thursday 19 August 2027. The full timetable for June 2027 is in AQA’s English exam dates for June 2027.

Sources

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