Welcome to the Sunday Times School Awards 2023.
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There is a huge range of UK Independent/private schools. All operate independently of the state education system’s National Curriculum.
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– SEARCH for GL 11+ practicew papers (and 11 plus mocks)
Pre-tests practice tests 2023 (for the two main publishers ISEB and CEM Select).
– Private school entry practice tests 2023.
Top Welsh schools 2023 and Top Scottish schools 2023.
Our Best West Midlands schools 2023 and good East Anglia schools 2023. Next, Best North East schools 2023.
And then Top Schools South East 2023 and top schools East Midlands 2023. Also, Best North West schools 2023; top Northern schools 2023 ; and best London schools 2023.
Finally, our top boys schools 2023 and top girls schools 2023 guides.
The other top performing schools were King’s College School, Guildford High School, Westminster School and Oxford International College, according to data on 200 schools published by the Independent Schools Council (ISC).
It is the first time results data have been collected for three years because exams were scrapped and replaced with teacher assessments during the pandemic.
Our interactive league table allows you to search these results by specific school and compare private schools of your choice against one another.
King’s College School in London came in a close second, with 94 per cent of entries from its 496 candidates achieving an A or A*.
Third place went to Guildford High School in Surrey which, along with a further four independent schools, saw more than 90 per cent of entries marked at least an A.
In total 22 independent schools saw at least 80 per cent of grades marked at an A or higher – more than double the national average of 36 per cent.
The data from the ISC, which represents 1,400 independent schools across the UK, comes after analysis from Ofqual showing that independent schools saw the biggest falls in top grades in 2022.
On average, independent schools in England saw the share of A or A* grades fall by 12.4 percentage points, compared with an average fall of 8.1 percentage points across state schools.
However, on average independent schools still achieved 58 per cent A or A* grades – approaching double the national average – after falling from a high rate of top grades during the pandemic.
Independents achieved 70.4 per cent of results at A or A* in 2021 under teacher-assessed grades, which was the highest of any type of school by far.
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