Top performing schools in Wales revealed in new survey
The top performing schools in Wales have been revealed in a new survey.
According to The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2022, Cowbridge Comprehensive School, in the Vale of Glamorgan, is the best performing state secondary school is the top performer in the country.
More than 60% of A-Level results at the school were graded at B or above.
St John’s College, Cardiff was named as the best performing independent school in Wales, where just over 90% of A-Level results were graded at B or above
The guide is available online from today, and as a supplement with The Sunday Times on Sunday 5th December.
The 29th edition of Parent Power identifies the highest-achieving schools in the UK, ranked by their examination results from 2017-19.
It includes a fully searchable national database by school name, local authority, town and postcode, together with regional rankings.
As well as assessment of all academic results on a school-by-school basis, Parent Power enables parents to compare the performance of a given school with other schools in the same town, local authority or nationally. There are also live links to school websites and schools’ most recent inspection reports.
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.
The top 10 state secondary schools in Wales
| Regional rank | School name | Town | A-level A*-B (%) | GCSE A*/A/9/8/7 (%) | 2022
national rank |
| 1 | Cowbridge Comprehensive School | Cowbridge | 62.3 | 44.5 | 177 |
| 2 | Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin | Carmarthen | 63.3 | 33.4 | 207 |
| 3 | Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr | Cardiff | 64.7 | 28.4 | 211 |
| 4 | Ysgol Y Preseli | Crymych | 63.6 | 29.7 | 213.1 |
| 5 | Olchfa School | Swansea | 57.8 | 36.5 | 234 |
| 6 | Penglais School | Aberystwyth | 59.3 | 30.6 | 243 |
| 7 | Crickhowell High School | Crickhowell | 62.1 | 25.1 | 244 |
| 8 | Ysgol Eirias | Colwyn Bay | 63.6 | 20.2 | 252.1 |
| 9 | Llanidloes High School | Llanidloes | 58.8 | 20.7 | 297 |
| 10 | Ysgol Calon Cymru | Builth Wells | 53.3 | 21.9 | 337.1 |
‘Independent’
The top 10 independent secondary schools in Wales
| Regional rank | School name | Town | A-level A*-B (%) | GCSE A*/A/9/8/7 (%) | 2022
national rank |
| 1 | St John’s College, Cardiff | Cardiff | 90.7 | 70.0 | 67 |
| 2 | Ruthin School | Ruthin | 93.6 | 63.4 | 68 |
| 3 | St Michael’s School | Llanelli | 86.9 | 74.6 | 71 |
| 4 | Westbourne School | Penarth | 90.3 | 55.6 | 92 |
| 5 | Howell’s School, Llandaff GDST | Cardiff | 73.9 | 71.2 | 141 |
| 6 | Monmouth School for Girls | Monmouth | 74.0 | 69.4 | 148 |
| 7 | The Cathedral School, Llandaff | Cardiff | 73.7 | 69.7 | 149 |
| 8 | Monmouth School for Boys | Monmouth | 69.1 | 62.6 | 199 |
| 9 | Christ College Brecon | Brecon | 68.6 | 46.5 | 238= |
| 10 | St Gerard’s School | Bangor | 57.6 | 61.9 | 259 |
The top 10 state secondary schools in Wales
| Regional rank | School name | Town | A-level A*-B (%) | GCSE A*/A/9/8/7 (%) | 2022
national rank |
| 1 | Cowbridge Comprehensive School | Cowbridge | 62.3 | 44.5 | 177 |
| 2 | Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin | Carmarthen | 63.3 | 33.4 | 207 |
| 3 | Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr | Cardiff | 64.7 | 28.4 | 211 |
| 4 | Ysgol Y Preseli | Crymych | 63.6 | 29.7 | 213.1 |
| 5 | Olchfa School | Swansea | 57.8 | 36.5 | 234 |
| 6 | Penglais School | Aberystwyth | 59.3 | 30.6 | 243 |
| 7 | Crickhowell High School | Crickhowell | 62.1 | 25.1 | 244 |
| 8 | Ysgol Eirias | Colwyn Bay | 63.6 | 20.2 | 252.1 |
| 9 | Llanidloes High School | Llanidloes | 58.8 | 20.7 | 297 |
| 10 | Ysgol Calon Cymru | Builth Wells | 53.3 | 21.9 | 337.1 |
‘Clarity’
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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The tables in the article should be relabelled ‘Top performing supportive parents’ and ‘Wealthiest parents’. To label them top performing schools and focus only on academic achievement is misleading. Many more schools in Wales do an amazing job adding value to their pupils who come from more challenging backgrounds.
While it is very true that schools should not be compared on exam results alone, which is a ridiculous way to do it, it should be noted that a few of those schools listed have very mixed catchment areas. They have overcome many obstacles to achieve their success. If the list was truly derived from schools with the most supportive or wealthy parents, then we’d expect to see a lot of the perennial big hitters there. But we don’t.
You might want to look at the column headers you copied and pasted with the tasbles before some heads start to explode.
hello
Regional rank? ARGHHH!
At least we don’t have to wely on Jonathan Wossie to wead out the comments … 😉