Across England, pupils are now about halfway through their six-week summer holidays.
Those that have recently finished primary school will soon be starting at their brand new secondary school, which will see them through some of the most tumultuous years of a young person’s life. Naturally, parents want to send their children to a school that will support their academic and social growth while nurturing their wellbeing, but unless your family is only in the zone of a single school, it can be a difficult choice to make - and Bedfordshire is no exception.
We’ve created a league table of the county’s top state secondary schools, based on their ‘Progress 8’ scores. These are based on GCSE results and other student achievements over a period of five years, and help determine how quickly students at any particular school are learning and progressing compared to a nationwide average. Any score above 0 is positive, and we’ve selected only schools with a score above that.
For good measure, we’ve also narrowed it down to only schools rated at least ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted - meaning the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and student safeguarding have all been found to meet or exceed the government’s standards.
Here were the 16 secondary schools across Bedfordshire that made the list:
1. Bedford Free School
The top-scoring school on the list is Bedford Free School - a secondary school in Bedford, as the name suggests. In the last academic year it had a very high Progress 8 score of 0.99, marking it as ‘well above average’. It is rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. | Google
2. Challney High School for Girls
This is a girls’ secondary school in Luton. In the last academic year it too had a high Progress 8 score of 0.93, marking it as ‘well above average’. It is also rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. | Google
3. Goldington Academy
Goldington is another secondary school in Bedford. In the last academic year it had a high Progress 8 score of 0.88, also making it ‘well above average’. It is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted. | Google
4. Denbigh High School
Denbigh is a secondary school in Luton. In the last academic year it had a high Progress 8 score of 0.75, making it ‘well above average’. It is rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. | Google