Peterborough secondary school named East Anglia's best

The accolade for The King’s (The Cathedral) School in Park Road is included in Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2019, which is published this Sunday.

The 26th edition of Parent Power identifies the 2,000 highest achieving schools in the UK, ranked by their recent examination results.

The rankings in the secondary school league tables are determined by the percentage of examination entries gaining A* to B grades at A Level this summer (which is given double weighting) and the percentage of entries returning A*, A, 9, 8 and 7 grades at GCSE.

The King’s School headteacher Darren Ayling said: “I cannot tell you how pleased everybody is at this recognition of the wonderful school that we are.

“The very challenging reductions that we have suffered in government funding over the past four years, and our continued efforts to offer an unrivalled education for our pupils, make this award all the more significant for us.

“The breadth and variety of the education we offer is very important to us, as is a broad and balanced curriculum. Young people deserve an education that enables them to look to the future with confidence, optimism and excitement.

“I’d like to thank our staff, parents, governors and, of course, our wonderful pupils for making us the school that we are.”

The King’s School has jumped 69 places nationally in the state secondary school rankings and moved up to ninth in East Anglia, making it the top-ranked non-grammar school in the region.

Its A Level results saw 70.3 per cent of exams achieve A* to B grades this year. The school also saw 49.4 per cent of GCSEs receive A*/A/9/8/7 grades, compared to 43.4 per cent in 2017.

Alastair McCall, editor of Parent Power, said: “The King’s (The Cathedral) School is now the top-ranked non-grammar school in East Anglia, an outstanding achievement for this distinctive state chorister school.

“While the choristers make up just a small part of this large comprehensive, the school’s position with the cathedral and a history that goes back almost 500 years make for an educational experience out of the ordinary.

“Children achieve highly and contribute strongly to their local community, acquiring sophisticated life skills and high standard qualifications that equip them for life beyond the school gates, once they leave after several memorable years.”

The top performing state school in the region is Colchester Royal Grammar School where 93.1 per cent of A Level results were A* to B grades, and 80.2 per cent of GCSE results were A*/A/9/8/7, putting it eighth in the UK.

No other Cambridgeshire school other than The King’s School features in the East Anglia top 10.

For independent secondary schools, Kimbolton School in Huntingdon comes eighth,

The Perse School in Cambridge comes top with 95.1 per cent of pupils achieving A* to B grades at A Level and 94.2 per cent achieving A*/A/9/8/7 grades at GCSE.

This is the equal 13th best record in the UK.