This Welsh private school is the best in the UK for A levels

Once dubbed “Britain’s brainiest school”, Cardiff Sixth Form College tops the list for the best UK independent school for A level results for the 13th year running. The highly academically selective school’s results are far and away the best for A*-A grades in the UK, according to new data from the Independent Schools Council.

This summer 90.74% of Cardiff Sixth Form College results achieved A*- A which is more than three percentage points higher than the next best in the UK’s number two slot, Westminster School in London (which counts Nick Clegg among its alumni). And a total 58.70% of Cardiff Sixth Form College’s results were the very best possible A*, compared to 57.66% at Westminster School.

The private school in the centre of Cardiff, which takes boarders and day pupils, attracts students from around the globe. It also offers scholarships to GCSE high achievers from maintained schools in Wales to come and study A levels with them. You can read about one student who collected six A*s at A level here

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Cardiff Sixth Form College’s success at A*- A results is three times higher than the Wales average this summer of 29.9%.The top performing student collected an astonishing six A* grades, which could make her the highest achieving, or among the best, in the UK. Principal Tom Arrand said: “We are absolutely delighted to be number one in the UK for the past 13 years.” He thanked staff and students for all their hard work.

Among theirsuccesses this year is scholarship student Leo Rawson from Blackwood who is off to Oxford University to study physics after getting four A*s in his A levels. The teenager got 13 A*s in his GCSEs at Blackwood Comprehensive which helped him get a scholarship to the fee-paying school.

Cementing its place as one of the top academic schools in the UK, half of all Cardiff Sixth Form College's students (49.6%) achieved three or more A* grades at A level with one third of the whole cohort (33.3%) achieving four or more A* grades in summer 2024. Six students gained at least five A* grades and one student from Cardiff, Cathy Lou, achieved six A*s in biology, chemistry, physics, maths, further maths and Chinese.

In total 87.5% of all students achieved three or more A grades in this year’s results and 107 of the 135 students achieved all A*-A grades. Twelve out of 12 Oxbridge offers were met with students going on to Oxford or Cambridge to study subjects including PPE, medicine, law, natural sciences, engineering, physics, French, maths, human, social and political science, psychology and linguistics.

Over half of all students (55%) gained places at Russell Group universities and almost 40% achieved places at the coveted G5 universities – Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, UCL and Imperial College. Some students have also chosen to study at overseas universities with 80% of all Cardiff Sixth Form College students winning places at the QS Top 100 universities in the world. A quarter of the cohort (26%) is going on to study medicine this year. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter

Top 10 independent UK schools for A level results graded A*-A 2024

1. Cardiff Sixth Form College (90.74%)

2. Westminster School, London (87%)

3. St Michael’s School, Llanelli (86.8%)

4. Brighton College (86.4%)

5. King’s College School, Wimbledon (86.1%)

6. Queen Ethelburga’s College, York (84.4%)

7. Guildford High School ( 82.7%)

8. Wycombe Abbey, High Wycombe ( 82.4%)

9. The National Mathematics and Science College, Coventry (82.2%)

10. The Perse School, Cambridge (81.4%)

Data provided by the Independent Schools Council (ISC). Not all independent schools in the UK either submit their data to the ISC or are represented by the ISC.