Students at Benenden School are celebrating a superb set of results at A Level.
Benenden’s Headmistress Rachel Bailey congratulated the Six Two after a quarter of all results earned the highest A* grade, while 56% were at A* or A.
Ms Bailey said: “The girls should be very proud of these excellent results and I congratulate them for everything they have achieved at Benenden.
“These inspirational young women are, deservedly, now heading off to the leading institutions around the world to pursue a wide range of careers and interests. We will follow their progress with great interest and very much look forward to welcoming them back to Benenden soon.”
Among today’s results, six students secured straight A* grades – with two of those achieving an incredible five A* grades each – while a total of 25 students achieved nothing lower than an A.
Benenden’s Class of 2026 are heading to a wide range of destinations. UK destinations include Oxford, Imperial, LSE, UCL, Durham and Edinburgh.
A quarter of the year group are holding offers at international universities – the majority of which are for the USA as well as Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
The diverse range of courses they will be studying reflects the breadth of the offer at Benenden, with courses including animation, musical theatre, history of art, international social and political studies, materials science and engineering, law, theoretical physics, marketing and management, architecture, and environment and sustainable development.
Ms Bailey added: “Of course, exam grades are an important part of an education but at the same time, we are committed to providing A Complete Education which means our students are going out into the world equipped with so much more than just excellent exam results.”
In addition to their A Levels, Benenden strongly encourages Sixth Form students to complete the Extended Project Qualification (a mini dissertation project). Meanwhile, all Sixth Formers complete the Professional Skills Programme, a two-year course teaching the skills needed to thrive in the workplace and beyond, including modules such as financial literacy, psychometric testing and the renowned Enterprise Challenge in which teams launch their own businesses.
The curriculum also features the Electives Programme, offering short courses in professional areas such as sign language, meteorology and metacognition, and Inclusive Leadership which focuses on the behaviours and creative problem-solving required by modern workplaces.
This is in addition to the endless opportunities for student leadership positions across prefect roles, student-led clubs and societies and a wide range of forums.
Benenden was this year awarded the rare accolade of a ‘Significant Strength’ from the Independent Schools Inspectorate for the quality of its non-examined courses such as the Electives and Professional Skills programmes.
Ms Bailey added: “Benenden’s mission is to shape future generations of successful, visionary women and I am enormously proud of this year group who are already embodying this philosophy of making a positive difference.”
2025/26 has been another outstanding year for notable student achievements at Benenden, including:
- A Sixth Form student finished in the top 10% of a national computational thinking challenge
- Our students built and raced their own racing kart as part of a national STEM competition
- Our choir released its third commercial recording – a collaboration with the renowned James Taylor Quartet
- The launch of the MedSoc symposium, in which our Medicine students presented research findings to students from other schools
- Our U13A Tennis team are Regional LTA Champions
- A Sixth Form student composed an acclaimed piece of music which has been performed at several venues
- The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award praised Benenden’s participants for contributing an outstanding 1,443 hours of volunteering this year.
Join us for our Sixth Form Open Event on Thursday 10 September.