Life right now will likely be a flurry of open days and application forms for parents of this year’s soon-to-be primary school leavers.
The new 2025/26 school year has only just begun, but applications for a place at a state-funded secondary school for 2026/27 are open now. These will close at the end of October, and although you can apply late, you risk your child missing out on an offer from one of your top local school picks.
Which schools exactly you put down as one of your preferred options matter, as these will see your young learner all the way through to their GCSEs - their first set of formal qualifications and exams. With this in mind, we’re revisiting the top-performing state secondary schools across the North Yorkshire and City of York council areas, using our own ‘gold standard’ for schools.
The main figure this uses is each school’s Progress 8 score for the most recently-available exam season (currently 2023/24) - a special metric which shows how quickly pupils have progressed from primary school to when they sit their GCSEs compared to peers from a similar starting point. This data has now been finalised, so it is worth noting that results and placings may differ slightly from earlier reports based on interim results. Where schools have identical scores, we’ve sub-ordered them alphabetically.
But grades aren’t the only thing that matters, so we’ve also made sure each school included had a positive mark in its latest Ofsted inspection. These are set to change before the end of the year, but for now, we’ve limited our league table to schools with either a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall grade before last September, or positive ratings across all categories if they’ve been inspected since. This means that quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding practices all met or exceeded official standards.
Here are the 18 schools from across North Yorkshire which came out on top:
1. St Francis Xavier School
At the top of the list is St Francis Xavier, a combined Catholic and Anglican secondary academy in Richmond. In a recent Ofsted inspection, it was found to be ‘outstanding’ in all categories. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an exceptional Progress 8 score of 1.01. This put it in the ‘well above average’ band – the highest available. | Google
2. Ripon Grammar School
Next up is this selective local authority-maintained secondary school and sixth form in Ripon, most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score of 0.72. | Google
3. St Aidan's Church of England High School
St Aidan’s is an Anglican secondary academy and sixth form in Harrogate. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it too had a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score of 0.72. | Google
4. Upper Wharfedale School
Upper Wharfedale is a maintained secondary school in the village of Threshfield, most recently rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a ‘well above average’ Progress 8 score of 0.6. | Google