School League Tables in England Explained: How to Read the 2025 Performance Tables

"School league tables" is the everyday name for the Department for Education's school performance tables, published each year for every state-funded school in England. Newspapers and tutoring sites turn them into top-100 lists; the tables themselves are a set of measures, not a ranking. Knowing what each measure says is the difference between a useful shortlist and a misleading one.

What the tables contain

Primary schools (Key Stage 2) - The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, and the percentage reaching the higher standard. - Progress scores in reading, writing and maths, comparing each pupil's result with pupils nationally who had similar Key Stage 1 results. Zero is average; positive is above. - Average scaled scores in reading and maths.

Secondary schools (Key Stage 4) - Attainment 8: the average points across eight GCSE slots, with English and maths double-weighted. - Progress 8: how much progress pupils made from Key Stage 2 to GCSE compared with similar pupils nationally. Zero is average; +0.5 means half a grade higher per subject. - The percentage achieving grade 5 or above in English and maths. - EBacc entry and average points across English, maths, sciences, a language and history or geography. - For sixth forms, A level average points per entry and the share of A*–B grades.

The tables also carry the share of pupils eligible for free school meals, the number on roll and absence rates.

What the top of a league table really shows

• Attainment follows intake. Grammar schools and schools in advantaged areas top Attainment 8 and the grade 5 measures almost by definition, because they admit pupils who arrive with higher prior attainment.
• Progress 8 is the fairest comparison because it adjusts for where pupils started, but it has quirks: it rewards schools that enter pupils for a full EBacc spread, and small cohorts and pupil mobility swing it.
• Independent schools rarely appear. Most fee-paying schools do not have Key Stage results published in the tables, so a league table of "all schools" is usually a table of state schools.
• Special schools and alternative provision can appear with extreme progress scores for structural reasons. A top-10 list that starts with a special school is a sign the compiler did not filter.
• Years differ. Progress measures were not published for some recent years because the relevant Key Stage 2 tests were cancelled during the pandemic. Any 2025 list with a Progress 8 column is using an older year for that column.

How this site builds its league tables

The England Success Index starts from the same performance tables and the Get Information About Schools register, and then does three things the raw tables do not:

1. Percentiles within phase. Primary schools are compared only with primary schools, secondary with secondary, across England.
2. Transparent weighting. Key Stage 2 attainment and progress for primaries; Progress 8, Attainment 8, grade 5+ in English and maths and A level points for secondaries, with the share of pupils on free school meals as a visible context measure. The weights are on every profile and in the methodology.
3. Every school listed. Schools without published results still have a profile, with a note explaining why they are unranked.

Start with the England league tables by region, open the top Progress 8 schools or the top GCSE schools for raw results, and then read the free-school-meals share beside each result. The schools to visit are the ones whose results exceed what their intake predicts.