The 7 top state secondary schools in Derby - from latest Ofsted and GCSE performance data

This year’s primary school leavers are now in their final few months before they’re off to secondary school.

It can be a time of great change, both good and bad. Pupils will eventually have to tackle their GCSEs there, important qualifications that can play a big part in their opportunities going forwards. Each school will have its own pros and cons too - and not every one will be the right fit for every child or family.

Late last year, the Government released its latest performance figures for state-funded secondary schools, covering the most recently-ended 2023/24 school year. Using this data, we’ve created a league table ranking the top performers across the Derby City Council area for local families.

It’s based on each school’s latest Progress 8 score, 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. The Government sorts schools into bands based on this measure - and we’ve made sure to only include Derby school which at least earned a spot in the ‘average’ band.

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 7 Derby city schools that came out on top: