Woodbridge School says 56% of grades were 9-7 and Felixstowe School's grade 4 rate in English rose 15 points. Farlingaye published nothing.
Of the five secondary schools serving this coast, two have published GCSE figures for summer 2026, one has published a celebration with no numbers in it, and two have published nothing at all. Suffolk County Council has issued no results day statement either. Results were handed out on Thursday 20 August.
Here is what each school has put on its own website.
- Woodbridge School (independent): 56 per cent of grades at 9-7, grade 8 the most common grade at 21 per cent of all grades, and more than one grade in every six a grade 9. Two students got ten grade 9s and twelve scored ten or more grades at 9-8. (Woodbridge School, GCSE Results 2026, 20 August 2026)
- Felixstowe School (academy): the share of students reaching grade 4 or above in English rose by 15 percentage points on last year, and the share reaching grade 5 or above rose by 19 points. No overall figure was published. (Felixstowe School, 20 August 2026)
- Thomas Mills High School, Framlingham (academy): a celebration notice naming three students who took grade 9s in most of their subjects, and saying the vast majority of the year group will move into its own sixth form. No percentages. (Thomas Mills High School, 20 August 2026)
- Farlingaye High School, the largest school in Woodbridge: nothing. Its website still carries exam results pages for 2023, 2024 and 2025 only, and its news page stops on 1 July. (Farlingaye High School)
- Alde Valley Academy, Leiston: nothing for this year. Its exam results page still reports 2024/25, when 41 per cent of students reached grade 4 or above in English and maths and 23 per cent reached grade 5 or above. (Alde Valley Academy)
Emma Wilson-Downes, headteacher at Felixstowe School, said the English result “represents a significant improvement and opens up opportunities for many more young people”. Shona Norman, Head of School at Woodbridge School, said the results “reflect the hard work, commitment and resilience” the year group had shown.
The national figure everyone quotes is the wrong one
Ofqual published the national picture at 9.30am on results day. Across England, 67.0 per cent of GCSE results were at grade 4 or above and 21.8 per cent at grade 7 or above. That 67 per cent is the number most councils and most newspapers reach for.
It is the wrong benchmark for a Year 11 cohort. It counts everyone who sat a GCSE, including the large number of older students resitting English and maths at colleges. Ofqual’s own table shows how much that drags the figure down: further education establishments recorded 17.6 per cent at grade 4 or above, and sixth form colleges 32.2 per cent. Those are resit centres, not failing institutions.
Ofqual publishes a second table for 16 year olds only. It is the fair comparison, and it is nearly four points higher.
| Benchmark, summer 2026 | Grade 4 and above | Grade 7 and above |
|---|---|---|
| England, all ages | 67.0% | 21.8% |
| England, 16 year olds | 70.7% | 23.1% |
| East of England, all ages | 67.6% | 22.0% |
| East of England, 16 year olds | 70.7% | 23.1% |
Source: Ofqual, Qualification results in England: summer 2026, tables 19a and 19b
Two things stand out in that table. The East of England’s 16 year olds landed on exactly the England average this year, to the decimal, on both measures. And the region slipped very slightly against last year, from 70.8 to 70.7 per cent at grade 4 and above, while London and the South East both rose. Only three English regions went backwards on that measure, and this was one of them.
Why school type matters more than town
Ofqual also breaks results down by the type of centre, and the gaps are much wider than any gap between towns. Nationally in 2026, grammar schools recorded 97.4 per cent of results at grade 4 or above, independent schools 88.4 per cent, academies 68.2 per cent and all state funded schools together 66.1 per cent. There are no grammar schools on this coast.
At grade 7 and above, the measure Woodbridge School reports, the picture looks like this.
Woodbridge School’s 56 per cent sits well above the independent sector average of 47.1 per cent. That is the only local figure this year that can be set against a national one at all.
Read the local figures carefully
The five schools above have published on five different bases. Woodbridge School gives a percentage of grades. Felixstowe School gives a change in the percentage of students, in one subject, against its own last year. Alde Valley Academy’s page gives a percentage of students in English and maths together, and it is last year’s. Thomas Mills gives no number.
None of those can be lined up against each other, and only the first can be compared with Ofqual. A rise of 15 percentage points in English at Felixstowe School is a real and substantial improvement, but the school has not published the figure it started from, so it cannot be turned into a rate.
Suffolk County Council, which is the local education authority, published no results day statement this year. Ofqual publishes no breakdown by local authority in its data tables either, so there is no official East Suffolk or Suffolk figure to quote. Ofqual’s interactive map does show smaller areas, but it assigns results by the postcode of the exam centre rather than by where the student lives, so a district containing a large independent school ranks high on other people’s children.
What it means for you
If a grade looks wrong. For GCSE there is no priority service. The one that closed on 20 August covered A level, AS and level 3 vocational qualifications only. For GCSE, both a clerical re-check and a review of marking close on Thursday 24 September, with turnarounds of 10 and 20 calendar days. (JCQ, post-results services, summer 2026)
Two things families get wrong every year. The request goes through the school’s exams officer, not direct to the exam board, and it needs the student’s written consent. And there is no grade protection, so a review can move a mark down as well as up, and the lower grade stands.
If English or maths needs a resit. The November series runs in the first full week of the month, all papers in the morning. For Pearson Edexcel, the largest board, the dates are:
- English Language paper 1: Tuesday 3 November
- Maths paper 1, non-calculator: Wednesday 4 November
- English Language paper 2: Thursday 5 November
- Maths paper 2, calculator: Friday 6 November
- Maths paper 3, calculator: Monday 9 November
(Pearson Edexcel, GCSE November 2026 examination timetable, final) Entries go through the school or college, so speak to the exams officer rather than the board. Anyone who did not reach grade 4 in English or maths has to keep studying the subject to 18, so this is not optional for most.
If the grades were not what was needed. The National Careers Service runs a free exam results helpline on 0800 100 900, staffed by advisers who can talk through resits, apprenticeships and college places. (National Careers Service)
A level results on this coast came out a week earlier, and Woodbridge School called them its best ever. For what this year group is walking into locally, East Suffolk’s claimant count stands at 2.8 per cent of working age residents.
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