A-Level Biology Tutors in Kingston upon Thames 2026

Kingston upon Thames has eleven sixth forms that enter students for A-level Biology, and the Department for Education's 2024/25 value-added data cannot pick one out: no interval sits wholly above zero, two sit wholly below it and nine span it, across 354 matched entries. What separates the eleven is the exam board, the GCSE grade each asks for and the route an outside student takes to apply.

Every score on this page is DfE's value-added progress measure for 2024/25 entrants and is not a measure of teaching quality. The published rows are set out below beside what each school says on its own website about its A-level Biology board, entry grades and admissions route, as read on 29 September 2026.

Can DfE's 2024/25 Figures Tell Kingston's A-Level Biology Departments Apart?

The table covers local authority 314, Kingston upon Thames, which is its own authority and not a district of a larger one, so a sixth form across the boundary in Richmond upon Thames, Merton or Surrey does not appear in it, no matter how close it sits. Filtering the Department for Education's institution-level subject value-added dataset, published on 23 April 2026, to that authority, to the GCE A level qualification and to Biology returns eleven rows for 2024/25. All eleven are published and none is suppressed. Our Kingston A-level Maths page explains what value added compares and why an interval that spans zero is not a finding, so that method is not repeated here.

The table is sorted by the number of matched entries behind each score, largest first, never by the score itself.

Source: Department for Education, institution-level subject value added, GCE A level, Biology, 2024/25, queried through the DfE statistics API on 29 September 2026. Every score is DfE's value-added progress measure for 2024/25 entrants and is not a measure of teaching quality; the last column shows only whether that row's own interval reaches zero, not a comparison with any other row.

The table supports one short sentence: no Kingston sixth form has an A-level Biology interval wholly above zero. Nine of the eleven span zero and two lie wholly below it, on 354 matched entries in all.

In all eleven rows an interval's half-width multiplied by the square root of its matched entries falls between 2.08 and 2.11, this page's own arithmetic on the published rows. Interval width therefore follows the number of entries: the intervals run from 0.47 wide at 79 matched entries to 1.27 wide at 11, and at those sizes nine of the eleven reach zero, so those nine departments cannot be told from an average one.

Tolworth Girls' School and Sixth Form's value-added score for A-level Biology is -0.42, with a 95% confidence interval of -0.8 to -0.04 from 30 matched entries; this is DfE's progress measure for 2024/25 entrants and is not a measure of teaching quality.

The Holy Cross School's value-added score for A-level Biology is -0.62, with a 95% confidence interval of -1.08 to -0.17 from 21 matched entries; this is DfE's progress measure for 2024/25 entrants and is not a measure of teaching quality.

DfE labels the count in these rows "Number of entries". Compare School and College Performance counts 357 A-level Biology entries across the same eleven schools and the value-added rows carry 354, so a row can be lower than Compare's count but never higher: one entry fewer at The Holy Cross School (22 against 21), The Kingston Academy (21 against 20) and Southborough High School (12 against 11), and identical at the other eight. This page calls the value-added figure matched entries.

Why Do Only Eleven Providers Appear When Kingston Lists Nineteen?

Compare School and College Performance lists 19 schools and colleges at 16 to 18 in Kingston upon Thames. Five of them (Spring School, Marymount International School, Dysart School, Bedelsford School and St Philip's School) carry no data, and Canbury School shows no A-level entries, which leaves 13 with A-level results. Two of those 13 have no A-level Biology row in DfE's dataset, Coombe Boys' School and South Thames Colleges Group, which leaves the eleven in the table. DfE's own location list for the authority holds a fourteenth name, Malden Oaks School and Tuition Service, whose six A-level rows are all suppressed and none of which is Biology. All eleven schools in the table were recorded as Open on the Get Information About Schools register when checked on 29 September 2026.

Coombe Girls' School and Coombe Boys' School share Coombe Sixth Form, which takes internal applications from both schools on one form and external applicants on another. Compare lists A-level Biology (51), Chemistry (44) and Mathematics (74) entries under Coombe Girls' School, and Coombe Boys' School has no A-level Biology, Chemistry or Physics row: its A-level entries are Sociology 19 and small numbers in a handful of other subjects, alongside BTEC entries.

The Holy Cross School and Richard Challoner School describe a partnership. Richard Challoner's 2026 sixth-form booklet is published "in partnership with the Holy Cross School", Holy Cross's application page tells students at either school to apply through their home school, and Richard Challoner's entry-criteria table lists the site for Biology as "HX/RC". Each school has its own Biology row: 21 matched entries at Holy Cross and 13 at Richard Challoner.

South Thames Colleges Group is one institution of four colleges (Carshalton, Kingston, Merton and South Thames), and DfE records it under Kingston upon Thames. Its only Biology row in the value-added data is for a BTEC National Extended Certificate in DfE's applied general cohort, a different qualification, so it is not counted among the eleven and no figure from it appears here. Kingston College's a Science list and an A Level+ list pages, read on 29 September 2026, list Access, BTEC and GCSE science courses, and none of its 16 A Level+ pathways is titled Biology. Merton College, in Merton and outside this page's coverage, lists a mixed pathway "with the option of A Level Biology".

Which Exam Board Does Each Kingston Sixth Form Enter for A-Level Biology?

The board decides which past papers, mark schemes and practical write-ups a tutor works from, so it is the first fact to settle, and the value-added data cannot supply it. The table gives each board as the school states it on its own website. Rows are in the same order as the value-added table.

Read on 29 September 2026 from each school's own website. "Not found" means we could not find a statement in what was published and readable, not that the school lacks one.

Four of the eleven state AQA, four state OCR's Biology A, one states Pearson Edexcel and two state nothing we could find, so no board covers a majority. Pearson runs two Edexcel A-level Biology specifications, Biology A (Salters-Nuffield, 9BN0) and Biology B (9BI0), with different papers; the paper titles Holy Cross lists are those of Biology B. OCR's own H420 specification says that from September 2025 the board's name is Cambridge OCR, so either name on a school's page means the same board. Paper structure and content for each board are set out on our AQA, Edexcel and OCR A-level Biology pages and are not repeated here.

Five of the eleven name a field course or trip for Biology on their own pages, and The Kingston Academy lists ecology and field investigations in its Year 13 content. A tutor can work through the analysis and evaluation of field data with a student, but the residential itself belongs to the school. Pages that name no trip are not evidence that none runs.

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What GCSE Grade Does A-Level Biology Ask for in Kingston, and Does Combined Science Count?

The stated bar runs from grade 6 to grade 8 across the schools that publish one, and the route through Combined Science differs more than the grade does. The table gives each school's stated requirement for A-level Biology, with the document and year it comes from.

Read on 29 September 2026. Schools can revise entry grades from one year to the next; the last column shows which version we read, and the school's current course page governs. Hollyfield's grades come from a prospectus file whose name carries the date 21_11_23.

Seven of the eleven state a Combined Science grade: 6-6 at The Kingston Academy and Southborough High School, 6 in both Biology components at Hollyfield, 7:6 at Coombe Sixth Form, 7:7 at The Holy Cross School and Richard Challoner School, and an average of 7 at Tiffin School. The Tiffin Girls' School closes the route: it requires all three separate sciences for A-level Biology, Chemistry or Physics. Surbiton High School, Kingston Grammar School and Tolworth state no Combined Science route in what we could read.

The grades are conditions of entry. They say nothing about the quality of the department, and this page draws no comparison between an entry grade and a value-added score. For a Year 11 student the practical question is the gap between predicted grades and the bar at the sixth form they want, in Biology and in the second science. A student on 6-6 in Combined Science meets the stated Combined Science grade at The Kingston Academy and Southborough High School, falls one grade short of Coombe Sixth Form's 7:6 and sits a grade below Tiffin School's average of 7. Our guides to doing science A-levels with Combined Science and to Combined Science grades set out how Combined Science double grades work.

Can a Student From Another School Join a Kingston Sixth Form for A-Level Biology?

Nine of the eleven state a route for applicants from other schools in the pages we read. The Kingston Academy and Southborough High School do not address outside applicants in the pages we read. No school we read guarantees a place, and each sets and publishes its own dates on its admissions page, so the table gives the route rather than a deadline.

Read on 29 September 2026 from each school's own admissions pages; the policy year is stated where a figure comes from a dated policy.

The register's whole-school label is a poor guide to who can apply at 16. GIAS records seven of the eleven as single-sex, and five of those seven say in their own words that the sixth form takes both sexes: Tiffin School describes a co-educational sixth form, Tolworth a mixed one welcoming girls and boys, Southborough a fully co-educational one, The Holy Cross School admits external girls and boys, and Richard Challoner School external male and female applicants.

A student joining at 16 is not bound to the board they sat at GCSE, because the GCSE and A-level boards need not be the same, and a sixth form's own specification governs from the first lesson. The college route is narrower than the school count suggests: Kingston College lists no course titled A-level Biology, as set out above.

How Leading Tuition Works With Kingston A-Level Biology Students

Our expert A-level Biology tutors help students across Kingston upon Thames with the content, the practical endorsement and the exam technique of whichever specification their sixth form enters. A programme starts from the student's board and specification code, the papers their department sits and the grades they are working at now, and lessons run one-to-one online with a shared whiteboard for past-paper work. Our A-level Biology subject page compares the specifications and the AQA, Edexcel and OCR pages cover each board's papers and content.

Year 11 students aiming at a sixth form's Biology grade can start with our Kingston GCSE tuition page, and those taking Maths alongside Biology can see our Kingston A-level Maths page. Our overview of tutoring across Kingston upon Thames covers 11+ and admissions-test support in the borough, and our national Biology tutor service page covers common weaknesses, exam-board differences and the topics that cost A-level students marks.

Value-added and entry figures are drawn from the Department for Education's Compare School and College Performance service and its statistics API. Each school's board, grade and route above comes from that school's own website, read on 29 September 2026, and the Edexcel and OCR specification codes come from Pearson's and OCR's own specifications. Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026.

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