About the data
Every figure on School Shortlist comes from a publication of the Department for Education or Ofsted. We do not rate, score or rank schools ourselves: we show what the Department for Education and Ofsted publish, with the date we read it, and we calculate only distances and simple comparisons, which are labelled as ours.
The schools
The list of schools, their type, age range, number of pupils, admissions policy, sixth form, address and position come from Get Information about Schools, the Department for Education's register of schools and other establishments in England. We include the open state-funded academies, free schools and local authority maintained schools that the register lists as secondary, middle deemed secondary, all-through or 16 plus: they teach pupils of secondary age or students aged 16 and over. We do not include special schools and other establishments that the register lists without a phase of education, independent schools, colleges that the register lists as further education colleges (including some sixth form colleges), or schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have their own registers.
Ofsted inspections
The latest inspection of each school comes from Ofsted's monthly management information on state-funded schools. Depending on the date of the inspection, a school shows a report card, the grades of the old system, key judgements without an overall grade, or the outcome of an ungraded inspection. Ofsted ratings explained sets out what each one means. Ofsted inspects 16 to 19 academies and free schools as further education and skills providers: their inspections are not in this data, so their pages show no inspection for now.
Exam results
- GCSE and other key stage 4 results, academic year 2025/26: provisional figures published by the Department for Education. We show the average Attainment 8 score and the percentages of pupils achieving grade 5 or above, and grade 4 or above, in English and maths, for the school, its local authority and England (all state-funded schools). The 2025/26 data set gives no Progress 8 scores.
- A level results, academic year 2024/25: the average grade and points per A level entry, and the percentage of students achieving grades AAB or better at A level, at least two of them in facilitating subjects, for the school and for England (all state-funded schools and colleges).
Provisional figures can change when the Department for Education publishes revised data; we will update them then.
When a figure is missing, we say why: the school is not in the Department for Education's file under its register number (URN), it is listed without a published figure, it had no pupils at the end of key stage 4, or its pupils leave before GCSEs. When the register links a school to a single closed school it replaced, and the Department for Education filed the results under that earlier number, we show them and give the earlier URN.
Distances and comparisons
Distances are measured in a straight line ("as the crow flies") between positions in the register, converted from the British National Grid to latitude and longitude. They are not the distances used to allocate school places: for that, distance is measured as set out in each school's admission arrangements. When you search by postcode, the starting point is the average position of the establishments registered in your postcode district in England, so distances from it are approximate; for a city, it is the average position of the city's schools; for a school, the school's own position. On a school page, the eight nearest state secondary schools are the eight schools of this list closest to its position in the register.
Reuse of the data
The data come from the Department for Education (Get Information about Schools, Explore education statistics) and from Ofsted, and are reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. School Shortlist is not endorsed by them.
Corrections
If you spot a figure that does not match its source, write to us at contact@schoolshortlist.co.uk and we will check it against the source.