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:
17. Feversham Girls' Secondary Academy
Feversham Girls' is a secondary academy in the Undercliffe area of Bradford. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, it was found to be ‘outstanding’ in all categories. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.68 - earning it a place in the ‘well above average’ band. | Google
18. Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School
Cardinal Heenan is a council-run secondary school in Meanwood, 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 0.66 - ‘well above average’. | National World
19. Dixons Cottingley Academy
Dixons Cottingley is a secondary academy in Cottingley, in the Bradford district. 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 0.65 - ‘well above average’. | Google