England’s highest achieved secondary schools based on this year’s GCSE results have now been named - with a bit of a twist.
On Thursday (October 16), the Department for Education released its new preliminary 2024/25 key stage 4 performance data for state-funded secondary schools across England. This year, the default metric schools are sorted by is their Attainment 8 score - with the usual Progress 8 score nowhere to be seen.
On the Government’s compare schools website, it says it was not able to calculate Progress 8 scores for the most recent school year, nor will it be able to do so for the current 2025/26 one. “This is because there is no [key stage two] assessment data available to calculate the baseline for Progress 8 for these years due to Covid-19 disruption.”
While Progress 8 scores measure pupil progress from the end of primary school through to when they take their GCSEs, the Attainment 8 score shows how pupils have performed without taking their starting points into account. It is calculated using their grades in the compulsory English and maths GCSEs double-weighted, as well as in three other English Baccalaureate subjects (which include sciences, languages, history and geography), and then in three additional GCSE subjects or other approved qualifications.
A school’s Attainment 8 score is the average score of all pupils across the year group. These scores also roughly align with the new 9-1 GCSE grading scale, meaning that if you divide them by 10, you’ll get an average grade - with 9 being the highest possible.
We’ve created a league table of the country’s highest-performing secondaries based on the Attainment 8 scores for the 2024/25 academic year. Here were 21 schools which came out on top:
9. Reading School
This is a selective boys’ secondary academy in Reading, Berkshire. In the 2024/25 school year, it had a high Attainment 8 score of 82.8. | Google
10. Newstead Wood School
Newstead Wood is a selective girls’ secondary academy in Orpington, in Greater London’s Bromley borough. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 82.6. | Google
11. Pate's Grammar School
Pate’s is a selective secondary academy in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 82.3. | Google
12. Colchester Royal Grammar School
As its name might suggest, this is a selective boys’ secondary academy in Colchester, Essex. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 81.9. | Google