Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb
Following last week’s publication of A-Level results, which featured some surprising new comers, here is the new ranking of London secondary schools based on 2017 GCSE results. Unbeatable St Paul’s Girls’ School is Number 1 (as always?), closely followed by Westminster School. NLCS, Habs and City are strong as always. The co-educational schools keep edging up, led by Latymer Upper and Alleyn’s. Wimbledon High and South Hampstead High gave had a very strong year again.
A very interesting trend is the very strong academic performance of London Day Schools compared to schools in the rest of the country. In 2017, all top 5 schools in the country are London day schools. Only 3 out of the top 10 are based outside of London (King Edward VI High School for Girls, Magdalen College School and Guildford High School). Magdalen College School in Oxford is the only boarding school in the top 10, all others are day schools.
Ranking based on A-Levels becomes trickier because a) there is a big difference in the number of subjects chosen by pupils at this stage, enabling a school that limits pupils to three or four A-Level subjects in their chosen subjects to outperform schools that encourage a broader and more challenging selection of subjects and b) at the Sixth Form level, some top schools offer the IB as well as the A-Level, which makes it hard to know what reflects a particular school and what reflects only the subsegment of pupils who choose the A-Level rather than the IB, and lastly c) more and more schools have an additional intake of pupils into their Sixth Form based on GCSE results, so top schools can cream of the best candidates from other schools. Boys’ schools such as Westminster and King’s College now admit girls into their co-ed Sixth Forms, which means their A-level results only show the final outcome of the co-ed cohort, some of which have only been at the school for two years.
A very interesting trend is the very strong academic performance of London Day Schools compared to schools in the rest of the country. In 2017, all top 5 schools in the country are London day schools. Only 3 out of the top 10 are based outside of London (King Edward VI High School for Girls, Magdalen College School and Guildford High School). Magdalen College School in Oxford is the only boarding school in the top 10, all others are day schools.
| School | Gender | % A* | % A*-A | ||
| 1 | SPGS | private | Girls | 91% | 99% |
| 2 | Westminster | private | Boys | 87% | 98% |
| 3 | NLCS | private | Girls | 86% | 98% |
| 4 | King’s College Wimbledon | private | Boys | 83% | 96% |
| 5 | Godolphin & Latymer School | private | Girls | 82% | 97% |
| 6 | Henrietta Barnett School | state | Girls | 80% | 95% |
| 7 | City of London School for Girls | private | Girls | 79% | 96% |
| 8 | St Paul’s School | private | boys | 78% | 96% |
| 9 | South Hampstead High School (GDST) | private | Girls | 77% | 95% |
| 10 | Wimbledon High (GDST) | private | Girls | 74% | 93% |
| 11 | Hampton School | private | Boys | 73% | 93% |
| 12 | Lady Eleanor Holles | private | Girls | 71% | 95% |
| 13 | Habs Girls | private | Girls | 71% | 95% |
| 14 | Latymer Upper | private | co-ed | 70% | 91% |
| 15 | Queen Elizabeth School, Barnet | state | Boys | 70% | 91% |
| 16 | Habs | private | Boys | 69% | 91% |
| 17 | Tiffin Girls | state | Girls | 69% | 92% |
| 18 | City of London School | private | Boys | 69% | 89% |
| 19 | Alleyn’s, Dulwich | private | co-ed | 67% | 92% |
| 20 | Notting Hill & Ealing High (GDST) | private | Girls | 66% | 89% |