A PREP school in Finchampstead is one of the best in the UK according to new data published in today’s Sunday Times – and two of the borough’s primary schools feature in the top 250 state schools in the same survey.
Waverley Preparatory School in Waverley Way, has lept up 26 places from its 2018 showing in the annual Sunday Times Parent Power survey.
Last year, it was judged to be the 48th best independent prep school in the country, compared to the 2019 list, which places it in 22nd place.
It is the only school from Wokingham borough in the list, only Slough’s St Bernard’s prep school rates higher from Berkshire schools: it came in at 15th place, down from fourth in the 2018 list.
In the state primary schools, St Dominic Savio RC Primary School in Woodley was joint 193rd in the list of 250 schools, down slightly from last year’s joint 184th position.
Joining them in the top 250 was Aldryngton Primary School, in Earley, which has leapt up the charts: Last year, it was joint 425th, but this year it is in 206th position.
The Sunday Times said it ranked schools by aggregated average scaled scores achieved by children in reading, grammar and maths in SATS exams taken in 2018.
Alan Smithers, writing in the article accompanying the tables, said: “The latest Sunday Times rankings contain a number of surprises.
“They show that results are continuing to improve in the 500 leading primary schools. Another surprise is that state-funded primaries are doing better than many of the rump of prep schools.”
And he added: “Prep schools do not have to take SATS, but about 150 choose to do so and the results of the leading 75 prep schools are published in Parent Power, released to the public using a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Education.”
