Guide to the secondary tables

The tables relate to England's maintained and independent secondary schools and colleges, excluding special schools.

They are listed in various ways within each local education authority: alphabetically, and ranked on key indicators from their GCSE and equivalent results, A/AS-level results and value added measures for 2005.

The tables are based on statistics supplied by the Department for Education and Skills in January 2006.

Smaller schools with fewer than 30 candidates are not ranked, although for completeness they are included in the alphabetical lists. Independent schools have (IND) after their name, academically selective schools have (SEL).

Clicking on any establishment's name in the lists takes you to a page showing its results and other information.

The rankings

The GCSE-LEVEL figure is different this year. Previously the department has reported the attainment of 15-year-olds (age at the start of the school year).

This year it has reported attainment at the end of Key Stage 4 of the national curriculum, whenever children reached it.

The department said this "reflects the need for students to follow the courses which best suits their needs, and at the pace that best suits their needs".

In most schools pupils will be in Year 11 (aged 15 or 16) the year group in which pupils normally take their GCSEs and equivalent exams.

The reported results are the proportion of pupils achieving what is known as the Level 2 threshold - where five GCSEs at grade C or above contribute 100% to the threshold. A single GCSE grade C or above is 20%. An Intermediate GNVQ at any grade is 80%.

Other qualifications in the wide range now approved for use in schools have been assigned other "equivalences" by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

This year for the first time these include graded exams in music or dance.

As a tie-break in our listings, schools achieving the same rank are further ranked on the average point score achieved by students.

Independent schools choose whether or not to be included in the performance tables. They do not have a local education authority (LEA) but are grouped with other schools in their geographical area.

The averages for an area are for the state schools in the relevant LEA, though the national averages do include independent schools.

NA in the tables indicates that there is no data or that the category is not applicable. Reasons vary: for example it might not have had any relevant exam entries in a particular year.

Value added

The complex Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 value added score is designed to show the progress children have made.

This is done by comparing their achievements with the median (middle) of other pupils nationally who had the same or similar prior attainment in their test results at age 10 or 11 in 2000.

The pupils' individual scores are averaged to give a score for the school as a whole, shown as a number based around 1000.

The absolute "bottom" to "top" range this year is 762 to 1096. Those on scores of 1057.9 and above are in the top 5% of schools nationally, those on 937.3 and below are in the bottom 5%.

The DfES says that if every pupil in a school achieved the median outcome for pupils with their level of prior attainment, the school would score 1000.

Care has to be taken when reading the value added rankings.

As a guide, with schools of 200 or more pupils taking exams, measures of 989.0 to 1009.4 represent broadly average performance, while for schools with 100 or more pupils, measures of 984.8 to 1013.6 are broadly average and schools with 50 or more pupils, measures of 978.8 to 1019.6 are broadly average.

For about 200 pupils, a difference of up to 14.4 should not be regarded as significant. For 100 pupils, differences of up to 20.4 should not be regarded as significant. When comparing schools with about 50 pupils, differences of up to 28.9 should not be regarded as significant.

If less than half a school's 15-year-olds were included in the calculation, the result is not published.

Page-by-page

After the school's name and address comes information about its TYPE, admissions policy and any specialism. See the end of this article for more detail on this.

The ABSENCE figures are the percentage of half day sessions missed by pupils, with and without the school's authorisation: "negligible" means less than 0.05%.

There is a link to the alphabetical list of all schools in the same local education authority.

And there is a link to the page on the website of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) where the most recent inspection report can be found.

The school's results are then presented as graphs as well as in figures. The graph bars allow a quick comparison between the school's results and the highest and lowest ranking schools in that category, as well as showing local and national averages where applicable.

The results

The VALUE ADDED score comes first. At GCSE-LEVEL the number "eligible" to take the exams is followed by the percentage of them with special educational needs, with or without statements.

The KEY STAGE 4 figure is the percentage of pupils who achieved the Level 2 threshold - five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C or their equivalents.

The percentage INCLUDING ENGLISH AND MATHS GCSEs shows the government's new benchmark: students whose "five good grades" include the core subjects.

Note: independent schools do badly on this measure if their students take International GCSEs, because the education department does not count those.

The TREND then shows this year's result on the old measure - attainment of 15-year-olds - with similar results for the previous three years, with the warning that a much wider range of qualifications was included from last year.

The A/AS-LEVEL shows the average point score per student in those exams and Level 3 Key Skills. On the coloured bars, "top" is 529.1 points and bottom this year is 23.3.

Most people study for AS-levels in their first year then A-levels in the second. The results for the two most recent years are given - though where someone did an AS and an A-level in the same subject, only the A-level is counted.

The points are those used by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas). As an example, an A-level grade A scores 120 points, an AS-level grade A is 60 points.

In the rankings, any ties are broken on the number of entrants - more first - then alphabetically.

Links at the foot of each school page are provided to compare its performance with that of other schools.

School details

Academy (City Academy) - independent state schools where sponsors invest in the building or modernisation of the premises and the state meets running costs.
Community school (formerly county school) - maintained by the local education authority (LEA), which is responsible for the school's admissions policy.
Voluntary aided - maintained by the LEA, with a foundation (generally religious) which appoints most of the governing body, which is usually responsible for the school's admissions policy.
Voluntary controlled - maintained by the LEA, with a foundation (generally religious) which appoints some governors.
Foundation school (usually formerly grant-maintained) - may have a foundation (generally religious) which appoints some of the governors. Maintained by the education authority but decides its own admissions policy.
City Technology College or City College for the Technology of the Arts - an earlier form of Academy.
IND - Independent school - mostly fee-paying.
Comprehensive - takes all pupils, usually regardless of their ability, aptitude, or whether they have been selected for a place at a selective school.
Secondary modern - takes pupils regardless of their ability or aptitude and who have not been selected for a place at a selective school.
SEL - selective - takes pupils depending on their academic ability.
Non-selective - independent school which takes pupils usually regardless of their ability or aptitude.
Boys, Girls ... - shows whether or not the school's intake is single sex.
The age range is self-explanatory - though a school might have a sixth form which is not officially part of the school roll.