In 2012 Queen Elizabeth’s School announced its best-ever A-level results, with strong grades across all subjects.

For the first time, the proportion of A*, A and B grades achieved at the school rose above 98%, reaching 98.5% - up from 97.7 % in 2011.

The number of A* grades was maintained, and there was a 4% jump in the combined proportion of A* and A grades, which reached 88.5%. Twenty-six boys among the Upper Sixth have offers from Oxford or Cambridge. All Year 13 boys have university places for 2012 or are taking a gap year. Sixty-three boys have been offered places to read Economics, 53 for Law and 47 for Medicine.

2012 also saw a record number of A* grades at GCSE at the School with A* grade awarded in 63.3% of examinations taken – an 8% increase on 2011. A* or A grades were given for 90% of GCSEs at QE. The average point score per pupil also increased, reaching 596.99, against 596.53 last year.

Of the 176 boys in Year 11, 96% were awarded five or more A*s or As, and the entire year group achieved the Government’s benchmark of five or more A*-C grades including English, Mathematics and Science.

A higher proportion of boys from Queen Elizabeth’s School gained places at Russell Group universities in 2009/2010 than from any other state school, according to data released by the Department for Education in 2012.

QE topped the national table, with 66 per cent of students awarded places at Russell Group universities. The Russell Group is an organisation comprising the UK’s leading universities, including Cambridge and Oxford.

The Government published the data so the public could see how different schools, colleges and local authorities were performing. QE was well ahead of the second-placed school, the Blue Coat School in Liverpool, which had 62 per cent. The data show that 330 schools – about 15 per cent of the total – sent no pupils at all to Russell Group universities.

"We take boys from all backgrounds and offer them the support and encouragement to reach the highest academic, intellectual, social, musical and sporting standards," said QE Headmaster Neil Enright. "It is very satisfying that these statistics confirm that QE is an academic meritocracy, making a significant contribution to social mobility."

Queen Elizabeth’s School maintained its position as the country’s top boys’ state school in the Sunday Times’ 21st annual Parent Power schools guide in 2011.

The primary measure used in compiling the tables is the proportion of A-level grades at A*-B. The Henrietta Barnett School in Barnet, a girls’ school, came first, with 98.4%, closely followed by QE on 97.7%, with third-placed Wilson’s School in Wallington further behind on 93%.

More pupils at Queen Elizabeth’s School achieve Cambridge University’s qualifying standard than at any other boys’ grammar school in the country, it has emerged.

The Good Schools Guide (GSG) has revealed that at QE, 63.5% of pupils achieve the Cambridge standard of two A gardes in traditional subjects such as Mathematics and Physics, plus a B in any other A-Level. The report found that in the lowest-achieving state grammar schools nationally, only 2% of pupils achieve the required standard.

“We undoubtedly recruit very able boys, but that is only the beginning: we provide an optimum educational environment which enables our pupils not only to achieve high academic success, but also produces young men who are confident, able and responsible,” said Headmaster Neil Enright.

QE holds a number of GSG awards for GCSE performance. The guide’s description of QE includes the following: “An extraordinary school that offers the able, the diligent and the aspiring, whatever their social or ethnic origins, an education hard to rival in the state or private sector.”