School basically takes up the first 18 years of your life. You go every day in your most formative years, you make friends, you learn how to read and write; where you go to school shapes who you become as a person. Needless to say, it’s a pretty big deal.
We’re not the first to realise that. There are dozens of lists published on a rolling basis which name the primary and secondary schools at the top of their game, but most of them are based on exam results, which can be misleading. The Fairer Schools Index aims to address that issue.
The Fairer Schools Index was developed by an academic at the University of Bristol, George Leckie. It is built to recognise the work that schools with fewer funds are doing day to day, even if their students aren’t always achieving straight As. It acknowledges that different students face different challenges, rather than judging everyone by the exact same metrics.
So how does it work? Basically, it only compares students from similar socio-economic backgrounds, including whether or not they were eligible for free school meals, their first language, the area that the school is in, and a few other factors, then does a lot of complicated maths to give every school a standardised score. In this way, it creates, well, a fairer ranking which doesn’t favour already advantaged institutions so heavily.
Here are the top twenty secondary schools in England, according to the rating, as reported by the Mirror.
England’s best schools in the Fairer Schools Index 2025
1. The Steiner Academy Hereford - Herefordshire, West Midlands
2. Michaela Community School - Brent, London
3. Mercia School - Sheffield, Yorkshire and The Humber
4. Eden Boys' School, Birmingham - Birmingham, West Midlands
5. Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Birmingham - Birmingham, West Midlands
6. Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School - Hackney, London
7. Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School - Blackburn with Darwen, North West
8. Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy - Hackney, London
9. Mossbourne Community Academy - Hackney, London
10. The St Thomas the Apostle College - Southwark, London
11. St Paul's School for Girls - Birmingham, West Midlands
12. Twyford Church of England High School - Ealing, London
13. Henley Bank High School - Gloucestershire, South West
14. Ealing Fields High School - Ealing, London
15. St Peter’s Catholic School - Surrey, South East
16. Norham High School - North Tyneside, North East
17. Menorah High School for Girls - Brent, London
18. Ark Greenwich Free School - Greenwich, London
19. Fairfield High School - Herefordshire, West Midlands
20. Sacred Heart Catholic School - Southwark, London
If you want to see where your school ended up, you can check out the full list on the Mirror here.
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As we say, there is a lot of school content out there. See which comprehensive state schools ranked highly on the Sunday Times Power Guide here, and the best selective and grammar schools, according to the same guide. If you want to check out other league tables, these are the UK's best state secondary schools based on 2024 GCSE results, according to Which School Advisor.
We’ve also got a list of England's 10 best private schools based on this year’s A-level and GCSE results, with the best private school in the country being in London. And if you’re already planning ahead, you might want to check out which school is the best for getting students Oxbridge offers.
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