From York to Sheffield, Bradford to Hull, Yorkshire is a big region, home to near-countless great secondary school choices. But some of these shone a little brighter than others in the last school year.
The government’s brand new preliminary performance figures for state-funded secondary schools were released last week, with primary school and sixth form data expected to follow shortly. We’ve created a league table ranking Yorkshire’s highest-performing state secondary schools for the 2023/24 school year based on this data - using their latest Progress 8 scores.
This is a unique figure based on GCSE results and other student achievements, which helps to determine how quickly students at any particular school are learning and progressing compared to peers arriving from similar primary schools nationwide.
Any score above 0 is positive, while any above 0.5 is considered ‘well above average’ - the highest band available.All schools on the list also had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before this measure was recently dropped, or, if they’ve been inspected more recently, had passing marks across the board. This means that the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and student safeguarding all met or exceeded government standards last time the school was inspected.
Here are the 19 schools from across Yorkshire that topped the chart:
13. Roundhay School
Roundhay School is a council-run all-through school in north Leeds. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, it was rated ‘outstanding’ across the board. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.72 - in the ‘well above average’ band | National World
14. St Aidan's Church of England High School
St Aidan's is a Church of England secondary academy in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. It was found to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in all areas at its last Ofsted inspection. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.72 - in the ‘well above average’ band. | Google
15. Abbey Grange Church of England Academy
Abbey Grange is a CofE secondary academy in the West Park area of Leeds. It was rated ‘good’ in all areas in its most recent Ofsted inspection. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.70 - ‘well above average’. | Google
16. Notre Dame High School
Notre Dame is a Catholic secondary academy in Sheffield. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, it was rated ‘good’ in all categories. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.69 - ‘well above average’ | National World