This year’s primary school leavers are now settling in at their brand new secondary schools, their home away from home for the next few years.
It will play a huge role in their educational journey, seeing them through their GCSEs and perhaps even their A Levels - and building the key skills and knowledge base they will need for whatever comes next. But not all secondary schools are made equal, and while they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, not all will suit every child.
Peterborough and the wider Cambridgeshire region are home to hundreds of secondary schools. Families often find they have more than one in their local area to choose from. But how can you even begin comparing one to the other?
To help, we’ve created a league table ranking state-funded secondary schools from across the Peterborough and Cambridgeshire council areas - using their ‘Progress 8’ scores. This is an important figure based on GCSE results and other student achievements, which helps the government to determine how quickly students at any particular school are learning and progressing compared to a nationwide average. Any score above 0 is positive, but we’ve selected only schools with ‘above average’ to ‘well above average’ scores.
All schools on the list also had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before this measure was dropped earlier this month. This means that the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and student safeguarding were all found to either meet or exceed government standards last time the school was inspected.
Here are the 15 schools that topped the list:

1. The 15 top state secondary schools in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire - based on GCSE results and more
The best-rated secondary schools in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire Photo: PT

2. Chesterton Community College
Topping the list is Chesterton Community College, a secondary academy in the Chesterton area of Cambridge. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. In the 2022/23 academic year, it had a very high Progress 8 score of 1.04 - putting it firmly in the ‘well above average’ category. Photo: PT

3. St Bede's Inter-Church School
St Bede’s is a shared Anglican and Roman Catholic secondary academy in Cambridge. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. In the 2022/23 academic year, it had a very high Progress 8 score of 0.92 - or well above average. Photo: PT

4. Soham Village College
Soham Village College is a secondary academy in Soham, in the Ely district. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. In the 2022/23 academic year, it had a Progress 8 score of 0.83 - or well above average. Photo: PT