A NUMBER of schools from across the Reading and Wokingham areas feature are officially among the best in the country.
The Sunday Times has published its annual Parent Power index of schools, ranking them on results.
The highest rated secondary schools in the area are all single sex.
Reading School came in seventh, Kendrick School 15th in the overall table for the top 150 state schools in the country.
In the south east region, Reading School was top of the league and Kendrick third.
In the top 150 independent secondaries, The Abbey School was 50th overall, and 18th in the south east table.
The Sunday Times Parent Power notes: “Nearly 30% of schools in our national secondary school rankings are in the south east, the highest proportion in any region.”
They described the south east as an “education powerhouse”, and noted that Reading School had the top spot in 2010, just as it does today.
In the top English primary school category, there were several entrants from the area.
The highest entry, in joint 90th position, was St Paul’s RC Primary School in Tilehurst.
In joint 106th position was St Dominic Savio RC Primary School in Woodley.
And in joint 216th position is Whitchurch Primary School.
There is just one entry in the top independent prep schools, which only counts the 50th best in the country.
Waverley Preparatory School in Finchampstead was joint 34th.
The rankings in the secondary school league tables are determined by the average percentage of examination entries in the three years, 2017-19, gaining A* to B grades at A-level (given a double weighting) and the average percentage of entries returning 9-7 or A* and A grades at GCSE.
Only schools that published their results in those years or disclosed them to The Sunday Times have been included in The Sunday Times Schools Guide, which includes around 1,700 schools. Examination outcomes from 2020 and 2021 have not been used in determining this year’s Parent Power rankings.
Alastair McCall, editor of Parent Power, said: “The need for clarity about school examination performance has never been greater after two years of teacher assessed grades, during which for completely understandable reasons, the numbers of top grades increased dramatically.
“We felt it was important to go back to the last sets of moderated public examination outcomes from 2019, 2018 and 2017 to get the most accurate and current view of school academic achievement. By taking a three-year average, we mitigated against relatively poor performance in a one-off year.
“At a time when some schools are making hard to substantiate claims of academic prowess based on outcomes from 2021 and 2020, we believe these rankings – and all the additional information on offer in Parent Power – provide parents with a more reliable guide to academic achievement in schools today.”
The 29th edition of Parent Power was published in last weekend’s Sunday Times and identifies the highest-achieving schools in the UK, ranked by their examination results from 2017-19.
It includes a fully searchable national database by school name, local authority, town and postcode, together with regional rankings are available to Times and Sunday Times subscribers at: thesundaytimes.co.uk/parentpower
