Choosing the right sixth form school or college to sit their A Levels can make a big difference to how a young person ends up doing - which in turn impacts their options after school.
The Government last week released the latest performance figures for state-funded sixth form colleges and secondary schools, meaning England’s top A Level performers have now been named. It comes ahead of secondary school offers - which are expected to be sent out over the coming weeks - while many young people are already mulling over conditional offers from sixth forms even as they prepare for their GCSEs.
We’ve used this new data to compare how schools across all of the East Midlands’ local authority areas did, to create a league table of the region’s best-performing sixth forms in the 2023/24 school year. They have been ranked them by their A Level performance point scores, a unique measurement derived from students’ A Level results that gives them a score out of 60. We’ve also included the average grade each school’s students achieved across their A Level entries.
The list is made up of only the very top performers - with each school on the list having at least a B- average. We also checked that those included had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before this measure was recently dropped, or, if they’ve been inspected more recently, had at least ‘good’ grades across the board. This means that the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management and student safeguarding were all found to meet or exceed government standards last time the school was inspected.
Here were the 20 state sixth forms from across the East Midlands that rose to the top:
17. Littleover Community School
This is a secondary school and sixth form in Derby. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of 37.58 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google
18. Chellaston Academy
Chellaston is another secondary school and sixth form in Derby. It too was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of 37.32 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google
19. The Ecclesbourne School
This is a secondary school and sixth form in Duffield, Derbyshire. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of 37.04 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google
20. Landau Forte College
Rounding out the list is Landau Forte, a secondary school and sixth form in Derby. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of 37.03 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google