The best-performing state secondary schools in England for 2025 have been revealed – find out how local schools in your area have scored for GCSE results this year with our interactive gadget
A new list of the best-performing state secondary schools in England has been released – and you can check how your area fares with our interactive tool.
The Department for Education today published GCSE performance data for every secondary school in England for the 2024/25 academic year. The figures are released just two weeks before parents in many areas face a deadline to submit applications for Year 7 places in September 2026. Across the country, just eleven schools saw 100% of pupils score a Grade 5 or above in English and Maths, equivalent to a C or above in the old grading system.
GCSE results were up slightly for the second year in a row for schools in England – but the Grade 5 pass rate for English and Maths was down on the previous year.
The new figures also reveal an educational north-south divide, with most of the highest-ranking schools in the south of England, and the furthest one north found in Stratford-upon-Avon.
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Check your area
You can see the performance of every school using our interactive gadget – type in the name of a school or the local authority area to see details of your school.
Covid hits league tables
Because of pandemic lockdowns, this year’s league tables are missing one key performance indicator which can help families choose schools. The pupil progress, or ‘added value’ score, is not available because children in the Class of ‘25 were not assessed before leaving primary school at the time of Covid lockdowns back in 2020.
It means officials were unable to calculate a ‘Progress’ score showing the extent to which schools had improved pupils’ performance over the course of their secondary school education, between the ages of 11 and 16.
The Department for Education said it was not able to calculate Progress 8 scores for the academic year 2024/25. This is because no KS2 assessment data is available to calculate the baseline for Progress 8 for this year due to the disruption caused by COVID-19. The Progress 8 score will also be missing for next year’s school performance data.
Top of the class
Top of the class for GCSE results this year is Wilson’s School in Wallington, Sutton, which can trace its history back 400 years to 1615 and is one of the oldest state schools in the country. The selective state boys’ grammar school was one of just eleven schools where 100 per cent of pupils scored a Grade 5 or above in English and Maths. That’s equivalent to a C or above in the traditional grading system.
Wilson’s School – which has the school motto ‘Non Sibi Sed Omnibus’, or ‘Not for Oneself, but for All’ – also saw 100 per cent of pupils achieve grade 5 or above in the English Baccalaureate, which measures performance across a wider set of core GCSE subjects. It was the only school out of more than 4,000 in our table that achieved a 100 per cent score on this measure.
Schools are ranked here by three metrics for Key Stage 4 education; the percentage of pupils achieving GCSE Grade 5 or above in English and Maths, the percentage of pupils of pupils achieving GCSE Grade 5 or above in the English Baccalaureate, and the average exam result for pupils in the school (which is based on an ‘Attainment’ score).
Overall, GCSE results were up slightly for the second year in a row for schools in England. The Grade-5 pass rate went up to 55 per cent from 54.6 per cent in 2024. That is also up on the pre-pandemic figure of 53.5 per cent. However, the Grade-5 pass rate for English and Maths was down on the previous year.
The proportion of grades 7 to 9, which are equivalent to A*/A, rose by nearly 2 percentage points in 2025. The data for 2025 also showed a continued regional divide with just 17.8 per cent of GCSEs ranked at grade 7 or above in the North East of England, compared with 28.4 per cent in London.
School-level data released today comes just in time for parents who have children recently starting their last year at Primary School. In many council areas, there is a deadline of October 31 for parents to apply for places for their children to start at secondary schools in Year 7 in September 2026.
Schools where 100 per cent of pupils achieved Grade 5 or above in English and Maths
- Wilson’s School, Sutton
- The Henrietta Barnett School
- Kendrick School, Reading *
- St Olave’s and St Saviour’s Grammar School, Kent *
- King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon *
- King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford
- Reading School *
- Newstead Wood School, Kent
- Colchester Royal Grammar School *
- Stratford Girls’ Grammar School
- Colchester County High School for Girls
*Schools marked with an asterisk have achieved 100 per cent in this score for the second successive year
