Bedfordshire continues to be home to some truly excellent, powerhouse secondary schools, new data shows.
The government’s brand new preliminary performance figures for state-funded secondary schools were released last month, after initially facing delays. Using this data, we’ve created a league table ranking the top state secondary schools across the Central Bedfordshire, Bedford, and Luton council areas for the 2023/24 school year.
It’s based on their latest Progress 8 scores, a unique figure based on GCSE results and other student achievements which helps to determine how quickly a school’s pupils are learning and progressing compared to peers arriving from similar primary schools nationwide. Any score above 0 is considered positive, and we’ve made sure all of those included in the list had at least a positive score.
Bedfordshire families who keep track of the latest performance data will spot quite a few familiar names from last year’s Bedfordshire secondary school rankings - although some have had notable rises or dips in performance over the last academic year.
We’ve also made sure that all schools included had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before this measure was recently dropped, or, if they’ve been inspected more recently, had passing marks across the board. This means that the quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding all met or exceeded government standards the last time the school was inspected.
Here are the 16 schools from across Bedfordshire that came out on top:
13. Etonbury Academy
Etonbury Academy is an extended secondary school between Arlesey and Stotfold, in Central Bedfordshire. It takes pupils from the age of 9, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a positive Progress 8 score of 0.13 - placing it in the ‘average’ band. | Google
14. Biddenham International School and Sports College
This is a secondary school with a specialist status as a Sports College in Biddenham, just out of Bedford. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.12 - also placing it in the ‘average’ band. | Google
15. Redborne Upper School and Community College
Redborne is a secondary school and sixth form in Ampthill, Central Bedfordshire. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a positive Progress 8 score of 0.08 - however banding has not been applied, as pupils start at age 13. | Google
16. Vandyke Upper School
Rounding out the list is Vandyke, an upper secondary school in Leighton Buzzard, formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had a positive Progress 8 score of 0.02 - although once again, banding has not been applied as pupils start at age 13. | Google