The best and worst performing secondary schools in Liverpool according to the latest GCSE Progress 8 scores

The latest ‘Progress 8’ results have been released by the Department of Education (DfE), showing how secondary schools across the country are faring compared with others.

Progress 8 figures, which give schools a positive or negative score, measure the progress that pupils make from Key Stage 2 in primary school right up to the end of their GCSEs in Key Stage 4. 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.

A negative score 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.

In Liverpool, three secondary schools achieved an ‘above average’ score. A number of schools did not record any Progress 8 scores or had their scores suppressed and are therefore not included in this list.

They are: St Vincent’s, Royal School for the Blind, Progress Schools Toxteth, Palmerston School, Auckland College, Redbridge High School, Peregrinate Ltd., Nex Gen Academy, Hope School, Assess Education, Nazene Danielle School of Performing Arts, LIPA, Fazakerley High School, The Studio @ Deyes, ES Independent School, Alsop High School Technology & Applied Learning Specialist College, Liverpool Progressive School, Rotunda Independent School for Excellent, Christian Fellowship School, Sandfield Park School, Prudentia Education, Lakeside School, Birtenshaw School Merseyside, Broadgreen International School and Dixons Croxteth Academy.

The Department for Education also states ‘Progress 8 is not the most appropriate performance measure for university technical colleges, studio schools and some further education colleges’ and they have therefore not been included. These schools are: Liverpool Life Sciences UTC and The Studio School Liverpool.

Please note, the DfE advises that these Progress 8 figures should be used with caution. In a statement, the DfE said: “In 2022/23, qualifications returned to pre-pandemic standards. Performance measures that are based on qualification results will reflect this, and cannot be directly compared to measures from 2021/2022.”