The importance of the secondary school years to a young person’s education shouldn’t be understated. Their school will not only be responsible for coaching them through their GCSEs, but guiding them through a tumultuous time of growth and change.
Excellent secondary schools can be found spanning the entire Lancashire county, from high-performing faith schools, to elite grammar schools, to comprehensive community schools in centres like Preston, Lancaster, Blackpool and Blackburn, which shine no less brightly. But its plentiful offerings mean that choosing the right one for your child is no easy feat for families.
We’ve created a league table ranking state-funded secondary schools from across the Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council, and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council areas, using their most recently-available ‘Progress 8’ scores (currently for the 2022/23 school year, until this year’s data has been finalised and published).
This is a unique figure based on GCSE results and other student achievements, which helps the government to determine how quickly students at any particular school are learning and progressing compared to their peers from similar primary schools nationwide. Any score above 0 is positive, and we’ve selected only schools with a score of at least 0.20 or above, usually classed as ‘above average’.
All schools on the list also had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding ’before this measure was recently dropped. This means that the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and student safeguarding were all found to either meet or exceed government standards last time the school was inspected.
Here were the 19 Lancashire secondary schools that made the grade:
17. Maharishi Free School
Maharishi is an all-through school in the village of Lathom, near Ormskirk, that follows an educational philosophy known as ‘consciousness-based education’ - which includes meditation. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2022/23 academic year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.22. The school is in the ‘average’ band, however, as its confidence interval spans both above and below 0. | Google
18. Whitworth Community High School
This is a secondary school in Whitworth, north of Rochdale, and just over the Lancashire border. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2022/23 academic year, it too had a Progress 8 score of 0.22. This school is also in the ‘average’ band, however, as its confidence interval spans both above and below 0. | Google
19. St Wilfrid's Church of England Academy
Rounding out the list is St Wilfrid’s, an Anglican secondary school and sixth form in Blackburn. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2022/23 academic year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.21 - and was classified as ‘above average’. | Google