Best Schools League Tables

How to read a school league table

Our tables put Ofsted first, then results. Ofsted's grade is each school's most recent graded inspection. Since September 2024 Ofsted has stopped giving new single-word grades, and from November 2025 schools get a report card that grades each area separately, from Exceptional to Urgent improvement. So a grade can be several years old: check the inspection date, and read the newest report on the school's page. For how schools are faring under report cards, see our Ofsted inspection statistics.

For secondary schools, Attainment 8 is the average of each pupil's grades across eight GCSEs, with English and maths counted twice. Progress 8 compares those results with pupils who had similar results at the end of primary school, so zero is average and a positive score means pupils did better than expected. It is the fairer measure of what a school adds, but it is not being published for 2025 or 2026 because those pupils sat no Key Stage 2 tests. For primaries, the key figure is the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of Year 6.

Every one of these numbers reflects the intake as well as the teaching. A school with many disadvantaged pupils can be doing remarkable work and still sit mid-table, while a selective grammar will post high scores whatever it adds. Small schools swing from year to year on a handful of pupils. Treat the table as a way to find schools worth a closer look, not as the answer.

From a league table to a shortlist

The top school in a table is no use if you cannot get a place. Most oversubscribed state schools offer places by distance once looked-after children and siblings are placed, so check how far away last year's last place went before you fall for a school. Each school page shows its admissions history year by year. Then visit: open days run mostly in September and October for secondary schools and in the autumn for primaries.

In England you apply through your council by 31 October for a secondary place and 15 January for a primary place, naming schools in order of preference. Offers come on 1 March for secondary and 16 April for primary. Faith schools and grammars often need an extra form or an 11-plus registration well before those dates, so check each school's policy early.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

League tables are an English habit. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland publish no official school performance tables, and Wales's inspectorate, Estyn, has given no overall grades since 2022. Our Welsh council pages compare every school on what is published instead: Estyn's latest report and any follow-up, whether lessons are in Welsh or English, and the school's intake and budget.