Best comprehensive schools in the UK 2022 (2024)

The vast majority of children in England are educated in the state sector at a state secondary school, almost 3.5 million at the latest count, and most of them attend a non-selective comprehensive school or academy. This year’s Parent Power rankings, based on three years of pre-pandemic performance, identify the schools with consistently high performance at A-level and GCSE public examinations where those children stand the best chance of achieving well.

St Andrew’s Catholic School in Leatherhead, Surrey, our Comprehensive School of the Year, stood out for its consistently excellent results, performing staggeringly well against selective grammar and independent schools, even in challenging times.

So did schools from Swansea to Durham, with faith schools doing particularly well on our table, as well as girls’ schools and some clusters of institutions around London and the southeast.

Alan Mitchell, the head teacher at St Andrew’s, believes that the strength of its community and its determination to see the potential in every child are critical to its continued academic success. Educating the whole child is key. The school sits eighth in our dedicated ranking for comprehensives and partially selective schools. The school’s A-level results — where 79 per cent of A-levels gain A*-B grades — are bettered by only 37 of England’s 163 selective state grammar schools.

“We are a community, where we are all in it together — parents, staff, governors, kids — all working cohesively for the benefit of each other,” Mitchell says. “We are definitely all about having good relationships: we believe if we get those right, we can navigate any challenge.

“We also believe in each other: I’ve got a thing about every member of staff believing every kid can get a top grade. When they join us, some of them might have struggled, but I don’t want those lives to be defined by how they were at 11 — they could be, though, if we start thinking that they can’t do it. We believe that every kid is world class at something and the challenge for us is to give them the confidence to keep persevering to find that thing and be passionate about it. But it’s also underpinned by being a nice person, being kind and working hard — skills that I think are crucial in life.”

Like many of the leading comprehensives, St Andrew’s is a faith school, although not exclusively so. Mitchell says that the majority of children and their families are Catholic, and while this faith is not required, he finds it a helpful unifier. “For me, it allows us to hook everything on to one thing,” he says. “Faith means different things to different people: we talk about faith in God, but also faith in yourself and faith in us as a community. Having worked in faith and non-faith schools, I feel it is a lot easier to hook everything on to your ethos when you are a faith school — even though all great comprehensive and selective schools actually want the same thing. They want the kids to be good people, to be honest, to take care of each other. We have that overt hook to hang all these things on, which makes it a little easier to buy into, I would say.”

At the top of our table of comprehensives and partially selective schools this year is Dame Alice Owen’s School in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, named as our Southeast State Secondary School of the Decade last year. The mixed academy, originally founded in 1613, is still sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Brewers: here, an “unashamed academic” focus comes first, and 65 children out of each year’s intake of 200 are selected according to aptitude and ability. It is in the minority at the top of the comprehensives ranking in not being religiously affiliated.

Yavneh College in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, 4th this year, is one of a five of successful mixed ability Jewish faith schools in the top 20 of our comprehensives ranking. JFS (5th), Hasmonean High School for Boys (9th) and Hasmonean High School for Girls (11th) in London, and the King David High School in Manchester (13th) are the other successful Jewish faith schools. St Andrews is one of four Catholic comprehensives, the others being the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in London (5th=), St John the Baptist School in Woking, Surrey, (14th) and the London Oratory School (16th). Add in Twyford C of E High School, in Acton, west London, and St George’s School in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, a non-denominational Christian day and boarding school, and 11 of the top 20 most academically successful comprehensives have religious affiliations.

Back at St Andrew’s, across our three-year ranking period, 41 per cent of GCSEs gained grades 9 to 7 to go with the 79 per cent A*-Bs at A-level, while less academic pupils can choose to take Btec qualifications. As with many of Britain’s best schools, extracurricular activities are part of developing children’s confidence and a team spirit.

“How we achieve fairly decent academic results is by trying to look after the whole person,” Mitchell says. “We’re big into trips, extracurricular activities, things for charity, varsity days, all aimed at giving kids the opportunity to develop softer skills that aren’t assessed in exams but that will help them be successful for life. We believe happier kids who believe in themselves can navigate a challenge far more easily.”

On those varsity days, for instance, it’s not just the top footballers and netball players who go off to play another school but six teams at different levels, plus supporters to cheer them on. “Two hundred kids all go off on coaches to represent the school and when they’ve represented it, they care more about it,” he says. “It gives a confidence and belonging that helps them to succeed academically. It’s not about getting all the As, but the idea that every kid can achieve.”

One thing that St Andrew’s also does is to make it clear to parents precisely what their role can be in supporting their children, even challenging them to make their own checklist of targets.

Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment research at the University of Buckingham, agrees that parents have an important role and stresses that, when looking at tables, it is important to think about which school will best match your children’s abilities and character.

“Choosing the best school is a matter of facts and feelings,” he says. “The facts are the data in the table, the inspectors’ reports, and what the school says about itself on its website. The feelings are going in and taking a look at the school if that’s possible. The Parent Power three-year tables give comprehensive data and are the best indicator of actual achievements of the children, when this year grades have been based on teacher assessments, and some schools have been more generous than others. But choosing a school, you do need to be honest with yourself about the academic potential and interest of your child.

“One of the weaknesses of the education system in England is that it isn’t always a structure that caters for all talents; you need to see how schools cater for music, sport, technical proficiency or developing entrepreneurial interests. Parents need to be honest about the abilities of their children and look carefully at these other features too.”

At St Andrew’s, where the head teacher is delighted that the school has performed so well on our reliable, three-year averages, the journey continues. “Getting better never stops,” Mitchell says. “However good we are, we’ve got to do better for the next group of kids, because this is their one chance at education and we are going to make sure it counts.”

The top comprehensives and partially selective secondary schools in the UK

1 Dame Alice Owen’s School, Potters Bar
2 Hockerill Anglo-European College, Bishop’s Stortford
3 Watford Grammar School for Girls
4 Yavneh College, Borehamwood
5= The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, London
5= JFS, Harrow
7 Camden School for Girls, London
8 St Andrew’s RC School, Leatherhead
9 Hasmonean High School for Boys, London
10 Parmiter’s School, Watford
11 Hasmonean High School for Girls, London
12 St George’s School, Harpenden
13 The King David High School, Manchester
14 St John the Baptist School, Woking
15 Watford Grammar School for Boys
16 The London Oratory School
17 Waldegrave School, Twickenham
18 Gordon’s School, Woking
19 Twyford C of E High School, London
20 Durham Johnston Comprehensive School

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