Grades might not be everything when it comes to what makes a secondary school a great place to learn, but North Yorkshire has no shortage of high-performing schools.
The government’s brand new preliminary performance figures for state-funded secondary schools were released last month, after initially facing delays. Using this data, we’ve created a league table ranking the top state secondary schools across the North Yorkshire and City of York council areas for the 2023/24 school year. It’s based on their newly-updated Progress 8 scores, a unique figure based on GCSE results and other student achievements which helps to determine how quickly a school’s pupils are learning and progressing compared to peers from similar primary schools nationwide.
Any score above 0 is positive, but we’ve selected only those above 0.5, considered ‘well above average’ - the highest band available. Some of the high-ranking schools featured also made the secondary schools league table for the whole of Yorkshire.
We’ve also made sure that all schools included on the list 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, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding all met or exceeded government standards the last time the school was inspected.
Here are the 12 schools from across North Yorkshire that excelled in the last academic year:
5. Brayton Academy
This is a secondary school between Brayton and Selby, formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a strong Progress 8 score of 0.59 - or ‘well above average’. | Google
6. Ermysted's Grammar School
Ermysted’s is a selective boys’ secondary school and sixth form in Skipton. Formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it once again had a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score of 0.59. | Google
7. St John Fisher Catholic Academy
St John Fisher is a Catholic secondary school and sixth form in Harrogate, formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it too had a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score of 0.59. | Google
8. Scalby School
Scalby school is a secondary school in Newby, Scarborough, formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.56 - placing it in the ‘well above average’ band. | Google