The government’s official performance figures for state-funded secondary schools were released in February 2025, providing an insight into the best performing schools across England.
As parents recently found out which schools their Year 6 children will be attending this September,, we have scoured the data to find the top schools in Liverpool and Merseyside based on GCSE results.
The figures include ‘Progress 8’ scores for the 23/24 academic year, which show how secondary schools across the country are faring compared with others and give schools a positive or negative score, measuring the progress that pupils make from Key Stage 2 in primary school right up to the end of their GCSEs
It was introduced in 2016 as a fairer way to assess a school’s academic performance, rather than simply looking at raw grades and outcomes.
A score above zero means pupils have achieved better results on average at their school than at other schools across England that got similar results at the end of Key Stage 2, and 0.5 or higher is classes as ‘well above average’.
A score below zero does not mean there was no progress, but means that pupils made less progress than at schools with higher scores. However, some overall negative scores may be classed as ‘average’ when the confidence interval spans both above and below zero.
Take a look at the gallery below to see the 17 best performing Merseyside secondary schools.
5. Birkenhead High School Academy, Birkenhead, Wirral
Birkenhead High School Academy achieved a Progress 8 score of 0.43 which is ‘well above average’. | Google
6. Formby High School, Formby, Sefton
Formby High School achieved a Progress 8 score of 0.43 which is ‘above average’. | Formby High School, Formby
7. West Kirby Grammar School, West Kirby, Wirral
West Kirby Grammar School achieved a Progress 8 score of 0.42 which is ‘well above average’. | Google
8. Wirral Grammar School for Girls, Bebington, Wirral
Wirral Grammar School for Girls achieved a Progress 8 score of 0.38 which is ‘above average’. | Google