UK School
League Tables
EXPLAINED
Sir Peter
Birkett

Secondary schools in the UK are ranked into league tables by the Government
Department for Education so that prospective parents can see how well each
school performs in comparison to others. These rankings are determined based
on a combination of actual GCSE scores achieved and how far pupils have
progressed since the end of primary school.

Progress 8
This measurement is known as Pro-
gress 8 and charts the progress of
all students across their eight best
subjects, to give a broad view of
how well pupils are succeeding on
average. The formula for calculating
this is fairly complicated, but the re-
sult is a statistical and detailed look
at the progress of children through-
out the school.
Bandings
The score that each school achieves
will typically fall between -1 and 1,
but parents are presented with re-
sults in a banding system that is
easier to understand. Schools fall
into one of five categories: average,
above or below average, and well
above or well below average. This
makes it simple for parents to see
how well their child’s prospective
school performs when compared
with other schools.
“Schools fall into one of five
categories: average, above
or below average, and well
above or well below average.

You can learn about the
work of p5e to help under-
performing schools achieve
more by visiting the blog of
Sir Peter Birkett.