By Amber Allott
Across the country, hundreds of thousands of children will shortly begin gearing up for an enormous change.
The end of the current school year is now just weeks away, with the summer holidays set to begin later this month – around July 23 in most council areas. After the six week break, children will return to class for the start of the new, 2025/26 school year.
For recent primary school leavers, this will mean they transition on to secondary school. This is an important time in their lives, one where they will pursue qualifications like their GCSEs and A Levels which can help them chart new courses for their lives after school. This is why finding a school that is the perfect fit for them, their strengths and interests, and your wider family really matters.
It’s also why we’re revisiting England’s best state-funded secondary schools, based on our own, personal ‘gold standard’. This is predominantly based on their Progress 8 scores for the most recently-available exam season (currently 2023/24) – a unique metric based on GCSE results and other achievements, which determines how quickly students at any particular school are progressing compared to peers from similar primary schools nationwide. This data has now been finalised, so it is worth noting that each schools’ results and placings may differ slightly from earlier reports based on interim results.
On top of that, each school we’ve included on the list had positive ratings in their latest Ofsted inspections. These inspections are in the middle of some big changes, but we’ve restricted the list to schools with a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall grade under the previous system, or positive ratings across all categories under the new one. This means their quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding practices have all met or exceeded government standards.
Here is the new, updated league table of our top 21 schools for the upcoming 2025/26 academic year:
Related topics:
SchoolsEnglandSecondary school pupilsBoostGCSEsOfsted