Schools in Orpington, Dartford and Bromley have been named in Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2022.

Orpington and Dartford schools were named in the top 20 UK state secondary schools in the newly released guide.

St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington came in fifth place. 

94 per cent of the school's A Level results are between A* and B grades.

88.6 per cent of St Olave's GCSE grades are at A*, A, 9, 8 or 7 level.

Dartford Grammar School was ranked at number 17 - with 91.8 per cent of A Level results between A* and B grades.

67.2 per cent of Dartford Grammar's GCSE grades are at A*, A, 9, 8 or 7 level.

Queen Elizabeth's School in Barnet came at number one with 96.3 per cent of A Level results and 91.5 per cent of GCSE results at the highest level.

St Paul's Girls' School in London was named the number one independent secondary school in the UK.

The rankings in the secondary school league tables are determined by the average percentage of examination entries in the three years, 2017-19, gaining A* to B grades at A-level (which is given a double weighting) and the average percentage of entries returning 9-7 or A* and A grades at GCSE.

Only schools that published their results in those years or disclosed them to The Sunday Times have been included in this edition of The Sunday Times Schools Guide, which includes around 1,700 schools.

Examination outcomes from 2020 and 2021 have not been used in determining this year’s Parent Power rankings.

Another south east London winner was Breaside Preparatory School in Bromley - which came 18th in the top 20 Preparatory schools list.

The average reading score was 110, grammar was 110.7, and maths was 111, which totals a score of 331.7.

The total score of the top Preparatory school, Guildford High Junior School, was 343.

Primary school rankings are based on the average outcomes achieved by schools in Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) in the three years, 2017-19.

The Sunday Times aggregated the scaled scores – where 100 indicates the standard which children are expected to achieve aged 11 – for reading; grammar, punctuation and spelling; and maths in each of the three years and ranked schools on the average aggregated score.

The full list of the top 20 independent secondary schools, state secondary schools, primary schools and preparatory schools can be found here.

Alastair McCall, editor of Parent Power, said: “The need for clarity about school examination performance has never been greater after two years of teacher assessed grades, during which for completely understandable reasons, the numbers of top grades increased dramatically.

“We felt it was important to go back to the last sets of moderated public examination outcomes from 2019, 2018 and 2017 to get the most accurate and current view of school academic achievement. By taking a three-year average, we mitigated against relatively poor performance in a one-off year.

“At a time when some schools are making hard to substantiate claims of academic prowess based on outcomes from 2021 and 2020, we believe these rankings – and all the additional information on offer in Parent Power – provide parents with a more reliable guide to academic achievement in schools today.”

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