Guernsey pupils celebrate GCSE success as top grades rise

Students across Guernsey are celebrating a strong set of GCSE results after schools reported hundreds of passes and dozens of top grades as another year group prepares for sixth form, apprenticeships, and their first steps into the workplace.

The celebrations come after another solid year of results across the Bailiwick, with 71.2% of GCSE and equivalent grades awarded at grade 4 or above – the equivalent of the old grade C.

That was marginally lower than the 2024 and 2025 results, but still comfortably ahead of England’s 67.0% figure.

16-year-old St Sampson’s High student Joe is among the students celebrating – with a move to Elizabeth College to study A-Levels planned after getting high grades across the board.

Joe secured grade 9s in English Literature, Combined Science, History, and PE, 8s in English Language and Music, and a 7 in Business Studies.

He told Express he was “not at all” expecting those results.

“I was excited. In some of the subjects, like English, I was getting sevens and sixes in my mocks, and to bump that up to an eight in language and a nine in literature, I was ecstatic.

“I revised so much. Every day before school, I’d come in half an hour early, to get on with some maths, and it’s clearly paid off.”

Joe has chosen to study Maths, Physics and PE A-levels at Elizabeth College, where he also plans to continue playing rugby.

The sporty 16-year-old has also recently broken a decades-old island u18s record in discus.

He hasn’t decided what he’ll do after A-levels yet – but like other students he’s heading to the West Show to celebrate with friends.

Joe’s classmates, Rosie, Olivia, and Felicity also received their results at St Sampson’s High today – with all three girls planning to start at the Sixth Form Centre next month, with university the goal after that.

Rosie was happy with her results and said they reflect the work that she’s put in, giving her the grades she needed to go on to study Biology, Psychology, and Environmental Science A-levels.

Beyond that, she already has a career path in mind.

“I really want to travel, and I want to work while I travel, and I want to get into wildlife rehabilitation, veterinary science sort of stuff.”

Olivia was also happy with her results saying “I did work hard and I think that shows”.

She’ll be studying Biology, Chemistry, and Psychology at the Sixth Form Centre with plans to “go to uni and study either Biochemistry or Neurology or Neuroscience. I would like to do something science-y, probably research science”.

Felicity will be joining her friends at the Sixth Form Centre too.

“I’m pleased. I got in to do what I want to.”

Her future plans include university to study Psychology.

St Sampson’s Headteacher Vicky Godley said she was very “proud” of all of her students.

“Those who have not done as well as they hoped are getting support to make choices for what they can do next but overall the school’s results have been good”, she said.

“Students are quite elated by their results. It’s an improvement on last year and very close to our predictions so we are pleased and proud of all of the students and the staff that have supported them.”

“You always want the best for your students, and you always want to make sure that those not quite made it feel as though they’ve got places to go,” she added.

“You’re always slightly nervous just before because you want the best of all the students.

“That’s why we do the job. But there are always options, no matter what, and it doesn’t stop at this point. It’s just the start of the journey.”

Les Varendes High School Headteacher Verona Tomlin echoed what Mrs Godley said.

“We spend five years with these children, and we go along the journey with them.

“What you want is for every single student to open their envelope and get what they would have expected in there. We will have some children today who are really really excited.

“Either they’ve got the results expected or they’ve gone better and so options open to them.”

While some students were disappointed with their results, she was keen to remind them that it was “just one moment in time and what we are really fortunate about here in Guernsey is that our children have so many options”.

She added: “There are so many things that they could do post 16, and so many qualifications that they can take on island as long as they’re willing to put the hard work in.”

Among the high-performing students at Les Varendes High School is Catherine (16) who secured a grade 8 in English Language and grade 9 in every other subject.

She was surprised with a 9 in History which is higher than she expected.

“There was a lot of study,” she said.

“I’m going to do A levels at the Sixth Form Centre, Biology, Chemistry, and Maths. I want to go to uni, I might do something like medicine. I’m not entirely sure yet.”

Tula (16) is also heading to the Sixth Form Centre planning to study Media Studies, Drama and English Literature, after working at home for most of Year 11 to great success.

She secured a level 2 Distinction in childcare, a grade 5/4 in Combined Science, 5s in Maths, English Language, English Literature, and Art and a grade 4 in German.

“I was really shocked to be fair because I was convinced I was going to fail them because I didn’t go to any lessons when I was in Year 11 for about the second half, so I completely self-taught myself a lot of the stuff.

“To get some of the highest grades you can in foundation, I was shocked to say the least.”

“I was revising nearly up to five hours a day outside of school,” she added.

Tula’s future plans include university to study creative writing, but her immediate plans were around celebrating her results with her family today.

Tanik (16) is also celebrating with family after securing grade 7s in French, English Language and Music, 6s in English Literature and Chemistry, 5s in Maths, Biology, and Physics, and a 4 in History.

“I feel great,” she said. “Some of these were a lot higher than what I expected them to be, so I’m kind of glad that I managed to bump the grades up a lot.

“I put a lot of effort in, especially for English Literature and Maths, because I was expecting quite a bit lower than what I got.”

Tanika is planning a career in education – first studying A Levels in Psychology, English Language and Literature, and Media, before looking at university places.

For many students, results day is about finally deciding what comes next.

For Ladies’ College student Sophie, who collected a string of top GCSE grades this morning, the future is still taking shape.

The 16-year-old achieved two grade 9s in Science, grade 8s in PE and Geography and a series of other strong results, and now plans to study Chemistry, Economics and PE in sixth form.

Asked where that could eventually lead, she said: “I’m not sure yet at the moment. Do I want to go into finance, or will I go to uni and study something? I’m not sure.”

Around her, classmates were celebrating another exceptional year for The Ladies’ College, with 46% of grades awarded at 9-8, 66% at 9-7 and 16 girls achieving all A*/A equivalent grades.

Every student passed both English and Maths.

Sophie’s classmate Claudia (16) was also “over the moon” to have secured the results she needed for the next step in her education.

After passing GCSEs including PE, Geography and Design Technology, she will now go on to sixth form to study Business, Psychology and PE.

“I just needed a six in Science, which I got, for Psychology,” she said.

How do GCSE grades work?

Many Express readers will have done their GCSEs when they were graded using letters, with A being the best.

However, GCSEs are now graded using a numerical scale from 9 to 1, with 9 being the highest grade.

A grade 4 is considered a standard pass, broadly equivalent to a low C under the old system, while a grade 5 is regarded as a strong pass.

Grades 7, 8 and 9 broadly correspond to the old A and A* grades, with grade 9 reserved for the highest-performing students.