England’s 10 best private schools, according to 2025’s A-level and GCSE results

There’s more to school life than exam results. But they are probably easiest, most quantifiable way of judging whether a school is doing well or not. And when you’re prepared to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds on sending your child to a private school, you want to be assured that they’re in with a good chance of getting the best grades possible. 

We’ve scanned the Top School Guide to find out which private schools in England boasted the best exam results across both A-Levels and GCSEs in 2025. And London schools came overwhelmingly on top. 

Following last summer’s A-Level and GCSE exams, the title of the best school in England belongs to St Paul’s School in Barnes, London. The all-boys establishment, which was founded in 1509,  saw 93 percent of its A-Level entries achieve either A or A* and 97.9 percent of it’s GSCE entries awarded top results of 9, 8 or 7. Its sister school, St Paul’s Girls’ School, came in a very close second with 88.7 percent achieving the highest A-Level results and an impressive 99.5 percent attaining the GCSE equivalents. 

The third best independent in the country based on 2025’s exam scores is King’s College School in Wimbledon with 86.1 percent of students getting A* or A at A-Level and 98.26 percent getting 9, 8 or 7 at GCSE.  Hot on its tail was Westminster School (a former stomping ground of people like Andrew Lloyd Webber, Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Theroux and Jacob Rees-Mogg). It had an A-Level A*/A rate of 86 percent and a GCSE 9 to 7 rate of 97.38 percent. 

The only two non-London schools to make in into the top 10 were Brighton College, where 97.95 percent of A-Level entries were awarded A* or A and 84.37 earned the GCSE equivalent and Guildford High School in Surrey which saw A*/A rates of 84.67 at A-Level and 96.41 at GCSE. Take a look at the full list of highest-achieving establishments below. 

England’s top 10 private schools for 2025, based on A-Level and GCSE results

1. St Paul’s School, London 
2. St Paul’s Girls’ School, London
3. King’s College School, London 
4. Westminster School, London 
5. North London Collegiate School, London 
6. Brighton College, Brighton 
7. Guildford High School, Surrey 
8. Godolphin and Latymer, London
9. Latymer Upper School, London 
10. Alleyn’s School, London 

Did you see that this hugely underrated university officially has the best teaching quality in Britain for 2026?

Plus: This ‘exceptional’ London school has been crowned the best in Britain for 2026. 

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