Some of Doncaster’s highest performing secondaries have demonstrated how good they are at what they do, with pupils surpassing the national average in their GCSEs grades this year.
The Government has now released the 2024/25 school year’s preliminary performance figures for state-funded secondary schools. This year, the usual improvement-based Progress 8 scores were unable to be calculated due to past pandemic disruptions, and instead, the default metric available to compare schools is their Attainment 8 scores.
These are a purely performance-based figure derived from pupils’ results in up to eight GCSEs or similar qualifications. They can go up to 90 and loosely align with GCSE 9-1 number grades, with the national average being 45.9 this year - somewhere between the standard and strong passing grades of 4 to 5.
To celebrate the city schools that have done especially well this year, we’ve created a league table of this year’s top performers across the Doncaster Council area. We’ve only included those that whose average scores are higher than the national average.
But as grades aren’t the only measurement of what kind of learning environment a school provides, we’ve also checked to make sure each school included had a positive mark in its latest Ofsted inspection. These are set to change this month, but for now, we’ve made sure each school included had either a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall grade before last September, or positive ratings across all categories if they’ve been inspected since.
Here were the 10 Doncaster schools which made the grade:
5. De Warenne Academy
De Warenne is a secondary academy in Conisbrough, between Doncaster and Rotherham. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 48.9 – compared to a local average of 44.5 and a national average of 45.9. | Google
6. Doncaster UTC
Doncaster University Technical College is in the central city, and takes pupils from the age of 13. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 48.5 – compared to a local average of 44.5 and a national average of 45.9. | Google
7. Don Valley Academy
Don Valley is a secondary academy in the city’s Scawthorpe area. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 47.8 – compared to a local average of 44.5 and a national average of 45.9. | Google
8. Hall Cross Academy
Hall Cross is a secondary academy and sixth form in the central city, most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 47.7 – compared to a local average of 44.5 and a national average of 45.9. | Google