Merseyside schools named best in region as new rankings released

The index is designed to give an accurate insight into the places where teachers make most of a difference

NewsDan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter, Rob Parsons and Amy Sharpe

13:11, 07 Jan 2025Updated 13:15, 07 Jan 2025

Archbishop Blanch School on Earle Road, Wavertree(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A number of Merseyside schools feature in the top ten in the North West as the ‘best schools’ in England have been revealed by a ‘Fairer Schools’ index. The index is designed to give an accurate insight into the places where teachers make most of a difference in class.

Researchers have measured every school in the country against a series of additional performance metrics to improve on official Department for Education (DfE) league tables. Designed to remove some of the built-in bias against secondary schools teaching children from deprived areas, the results – revealed exclusively by the Mirror – show the schools where teachers make the greatest positive impact on pupils up to the age of 16.

The study highlights schools which have climbed hundreds of places up the rankings when additional factors such as pupil demographics are taken into account. For many years the government’s method of evaluating secondary school performance, known as the Progress 8 measure, has failed to take into account factors including the number of children from poorer backgrounds at each school.

Doing so, critics say, risks hiding systemic inequalities and providing potentially misleading conclusions about school performance, with regions like the North East seeing its schools unfairly marked down because the areas they serve are not taken into account.

The top ten schools in the North West

1. Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School, Blackburn with Darwen (7th nationally)
2. Eden Girls’ Leadership Academy , Manchester, Manchester (37)
3. Tauheedul Islam Boys’ High School, Blackburn with Darwen (38)
4. Burnage Academy for Boys, Manchester (42)
5. Manchester Communication Academy, Manchester (47)
6. Upton Hall School FCJ, Wirral (48)
7. Archbishop Blanch CofE High School, Liverpool (60)
8. Bishop Heber High School, Cheshire West and Chester (61)
9. Saint Ambrose College, Trafford (63)
10. The Blue Coat School, Liverpool (67)

There are growing calls for the new Labour government to provide that crucial context and Ofsted is reported to be considering a new range of measurements for schools that will better inform parents. The Fairer Schools Index goes some way to redress the ‘false narrative’ of a North / South divide in Government league tables.

Developed by the University of Bristol, the index adjusts for variables including pupil demographics, ethnicity, and deprivation. The results show the real difference that the best schools make rather than pretending every school has an identical intake with the same socio-economic status and background.The Fairer Schools Index has been highlighted by the campaign group Northern Powerhouse Partnership as it calls for a better way of evaluating schools in different areas of the country. Across the North of England, there are 233 schools out of 928 in the region which move up at least one band to ‘average’ or better as a result of applying the fairer measurements.

Use this interactive tool to see how schools in your area have performed

Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “The Fairer Schools Index exposes the shortcomings of Progress 8 being used to measure any school’s performance on its own. By failing to account for a number of different variables related to pupils’ backgrounds, the last government labelled many schools in areas like the North East of England as under-performing while failing to account for demographic differences in helping drive higher outcomes in London schools.

“We are advocating for the adoption of a value-added measure side by side with the current, unadjusted data. This will allow us to recognise better those schools that do the most for those children from backgrounds too often let down in modern Britain.

“We must demand the best for every child. Those schools that beat the odds stacked against their pupils should be recognised as being high performing, and that will drive down the disadvantage gap over the decade to come and reduce the gaps which exist across and between parts of England today.”

The Fairer Schools Index shows that teachers are making a big difference to children growing up in England’s most deprived areas. Red House Academy in Sunderland is the highest climber. It was previously ranked “below average” at 2,720 out of 3,259 schools in the Department for Education’s tables. But using the index, it climbs 1,919 places to be ranked as “average” in 801st position.

Highest climbers in the North West

1. Birkenhead Park School, Wirral (1315) – up 1575 places
2. West Derby School, Liverpool (681) – up 1485 places
3. Ridgeway High School, Wirral (923) – up 1412 places
4. Saint Paul’s Catholic High School, Manchester (1498) – up 1258 places
5. All Saints Catholic High School, Knowsley (1284) – up 1239 places
6. Litherland High School, Sefton (1176) – up 1215 places
7. North Liverpool Academy, Liverpool (900) – up 1211 places
8. Hillside High School, Sefton (1524) – up 1165 places
9. Salford City Academy, Salford (369) – up 1158 places
10. Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School, Liverpool (1657) – up 1155 places