Sheffield's best and worst performing schools in 2024 with release of latest GCSE Progress 8 scores

The students who picked up their GCSEs in August 2024 were in Y7 when the pandemic hit. Even when lockdown measures ended, it truly hung over their entire secondary school careers.

That’s why the Progress 8 scores for Sheffield now in 2024 are so hard to read - because the results say the Steel City is vastly performing below the average for England.

The Department for Education has confirmed there will be no ‘Progress 8’ reports published for schools for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, making this year’s the last to come for some time.

Last year’s results say the majority of Sheffield’s schools are sadly lagging behind the average for England in results. And, this year, even more schools have fallen behind.

Progress 8s have are a measure for assessing schools based on how well pupils did in their KS2 results compared to the end of KS4 when they did their GCSEs. It suggests how well the school did at bring out the child’s potential.

A positive score not only means a school is producing better grades than the average for academies in England, but would indicate that children did better than predicted as a result of their time at the school.

The system has come under fire in recent years. As TES Magazine writes, primary tests were cancelled for pupils in Year 6 in the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21 because of the pandemic - meaning there is no prior KS2 attainment data available to use as a baseline for Progress 8 calculations for students sitting their GCSEs in the next two years.

It has also been criticised as being open to bias, due to catchment areas, entrance exams, or even how rich parents are. In 2023, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, called Progress 8 “fundamentally flawed” and that “no single score or measure could ever” describe what happens in a school.

However, it is used as the DfE’s measuring stick for how pupils have progressed across their secondary school career.

And, the scores this year say Sheffield is falling behind the rest of England.

They include some stunning success stories - for example, Mercia School, in Millhouses, has been ranked as the number two school nationally for its progress results, as well as second in progress for disadvantaged children.

But out of the 28 Sheffield schools with reported results, the majority - a total of 15 - are now producing grades rated ‘below average’ or ‘well below average’ for England. Just nine had a positive score, and only six are considered “above average” or “well above average” for England’s grades.

Some have suffered severe drops in results too. Handsworth Grange Community Sports College and Oasis Academy Don Valley both fell from ‘average’ scores for England down to ‘well below average.’

Stocksbridge High and Sheffield Springs Academy also both fell from ‘below average’ to well below average.’

Below, The Star has compiled and ranked all of Sheffield's secondary schools by their Progress 8 scores.

The Star has omitted special schools from the list. Because they specialise in apprenticeships and technical qualifications, UTC Sheffield City and UTC Olympic Park are also not here as their results are not comparable.

Schools that did not have their Progress 8 scores published or suppressed included Bethany School, Birkdale School, Sheffield High School, Mount St Mary’s College, Westbourne School and Seven Hills School.