Young Academic school report: London dominates again

Young Academic continues to bring you best of the current student news with this report on the best academic institutions in the country…

With ten of the UK’s top 25 state secondary schools, including the top four, London has more secondary schools at the top of The Sunday Times Parent Power tables than any other region. London’s success is revealed in the latest Sunday Times Parent Power – the definitive guide to the best state and independent secondary and primary schools in Britain. The fully searchable guide is published in The Sunday Times and online this Sunday, November 14. The definitive online guide – which can be found at www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/parentpower – contains 2,000 top state and independent schools, searchable by postcode, town, local authority and name of school.

As well as assessment of all academic results on a school-by-school basis, Parent Power enables parents to compare the performance of a given school with other schools in the same town, local authority, region or nationally. There are also live links to school websites and inspection reports.

Now in its 20^th year of publication, Parent Power is widely acknowledged as the most authoritative survey of the country’s best schools. The rankings in the secondary school league tables are determined by the percentage of entries gaining A* to B grades at A-level in 2010 (which is given double weighting) and the percentage of entries returning A* and A grades at GCSE. A three-year analysis of Key Stage 2 Sat results at level 4 is used to rank state primary schools, while independent preparatory schools are also ranked on a three-year Sat analysis, this time at Key Stage 2, level 5.

The top 10 state secondary schools in Greater London

Regional rank	School name	Town	% A-level A*- B	% GCSE A*/A	2010 national rank	2009 national rank
1	The Henrietta Barnett School	London	97.9	92.7	1	1
2	Queen Elizabeth’s School	Barnet	95.7	89.2	2	4
3	The Latymer School	London	92.4	91.1	3	2
4	St Olave’s Grammar School	Orpington	95.8	83.5	4	12
5	Tiffin Girls School	Kingston-upon-Thames	90	89.8	7=	7
6	Tiffin School	Kingston-upon-Thames	90.2	85.5	12	19
7	Wilson’s School	Wallington	91.4	81.2	13	5
8	Newstead Wood School for Girls	Orpington	88.3	83.8	14	21
9	Nonsuch High School for Girls	Sutton	87	84.7	16	14
10	St Michael’s RC Grammar School, Finchley	London	83.4	88.4	21	20

The Henrietta Barnett School takes the honours once again as not only as the best performing state secondary school in London but in the whole of the UK. No other state school in the country could match its excellent A levels or GCSE results. An astonishing 97.9% of A level entries were awarded A* to B grades, with 39.3% of papers gaining the highest A* grade, an achievement unparalleled in the state sector. At GCSE 92.7% of papers gained an A* or A grade.

Queen Elizabeth’s School takes second place moving up two places to rank second in the national league tables pushing Latymer School into third place on the back of its very impressive A level results – 95.7% of entries gained A* to B grades compared to Latymer’s 92.4%. Proving their calibre, none of the schools in the region’s top ten rank lower than 21 nationally.

The top ten state primary schools in Greater London

Regional rank	School name	Town	Key Stage 2, level 4 aggregate (07/09)	2010 national rank	2009 national rank
1	St Elizabeth’s RC Primary School, Richmond-upon-Thames	Richmond	900	5	21=
2	Our Lady of Victories RC Primary School, Putney	London	900	12	5=
3	Hampden Gurney C of E Primary School, Westminster	London	900	13=	10=
4	Tetherdown Primary School	London	897	19=	111=
5	St James’ RC Primary School	Orpington	897	22	20
6	Holy Trinity and Saint Silas C of E Primary School, NW1	London	896	23	93=
7	Riverside Primary School Rotherhithe	London	895	25	216=
8	St Monica’s RC Primary School, Southgate	London	892	38	69=
9	St Anselm’s RC Primary School, Tooting Bec	London	891	47=	36
10	St Osmund’s RC Primary School, Barnes	London	891	53	52

London also benefits from some excellent primary schools, led by St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary School in Richmond. For the last three years the school has achieved a clean sweep of 100 scores across the board for English, maths and science – meaning that every final-year pupil gained the level 4 standard expected of them in Key Stage 2 Sat tests – resulting in the school leaping 16 places in our national tables to rank fifth nationally.

A number of schools in our London top ten have made even bigger leaps in our national rankings in the past year with Riverside Primary School in Southwark moving up 191 places to 25^th and Tetherdown Primary School in Haringey rising from joint 111^th to rank joint 19^th.

The top ten independent secondary schools in Greater London

Regional rank	School name	Town	% A-level A/B	% GCSE A*/A	2010 national rank	2009 national rank
1	St Paul’s School	London	99.3	98	2=	4
2	St Paul’s Girls’ School	London	92.4	99.1	4	6
3	North London Collegiate School	Edgware	98.3	96.6	5	3
4	City of London School for Girls	London	97.5	97.8	6	10
5	Westminster School	London	97.9	96.5	7	2
6	King’s College School, Wimbledon	London	96.6	92.5	13	13
7	Notting Hill and Ealing High School GDST	London	98.2	88.7	14	39
8	James Allen’s Girls’ School	London	95.3	93.5	15	23
9	The Lady Eleanor Holles School	Hampton	92.9	98.1	16=	17
10	The Godolphin and Latymer School	London	95.1	90.7	25	31=

St Paul’s School, in Barnes, secures its place as the number one independent secondary school in Greater London following its outstanding performance this year. An astonishing 53.6% of A level papers were awarded the new A* , the highest proportion in the UK and more than 99 of every 100 A level entries achieved A* to B grades, matching the feat of Wycombe Abbey School in Buckinghamshire, which tops this year’s independent schools rankings. Only Magdalen College School, in Oxford, did better with a marginally higher proportion of A* to B grades overall. At GCSE only 2% of papers missed out on an A* or A grade. These excellent results boost St Paul’s national rank from last year’s fourth place to equal second with Magdalen College School.

In second place St Paul’s Girls’ School also gained an impressive haul of A* grades at A level with 49.4% of papers getting the new award, the third best performance in the country. With 98.2% of entries achieving A* to B grades, St Paul’s Girls’ School ranks joint sixth for A-level results. With 99 out of every 100 GCSE papers gaining either A* or A grades placing (ranking second national), St Paul’s Girls School rises to fourth in the national rankings this year, up two places on 2009.

The top ten independent prep schools in the Greater London

Regional rank	School name	Town	Key Stage 2, level 5 aggregate (05/07)	2010 national rank	2009 national rank
1	City of London School for Girls Preparatory Department	London	888	1	1
2	South Hampstead High School Junior School	London	880	3
3	James Allen’s Preparatory School	London	865	4	4
4	Notting Hill and Ealing High School Junior School GDST	London	859	5	5
5	Putney High School Junior Department GDST	Putney	841	8	6
6	Kensington Prep School GDST	London	831	10	7
7	Wimbledon High School Junior Department GDST	London	826	11	12
8	Bromley High Junior School GDST	Bromley	822	12	10
9	Holy Cross Preparatory School	Kingston-upon-Thames	804	13	15
10	Alleyn’s Junior School	London	771	20	21

The City of London School for Girls continues to top the region’s table of leading preparatory schools, and maintains its number one spot nationally for the second consecutive year. It was The Sunday Times Independent Preparatory School of the year in 2001 and 2005.

South Hampstead High School in Camden takes the number two spot in London and ranks third overall in the Parent Power league tables. With a highly competitive market for private prep schools in the capital, the city’s prep schools dominate the uppermost echelons of the Parent Power table. The capital’s top 10 preps are all among the top 20 nationally with six in the UK top ten.

Data courtesy of The Sunday Times