How to Choose a Secondary School: The 2026 Parent's Guide

The short version

• In most of England, the deadline for secondary-school applications is 31 October. Offers are usually made on 1 March.
• Progress 8 and Attainment 8 are averages for the whole school. They can conceal large differences between subjects and departments.
• An Ofsted judgement may be several years old. The single-word overall grade was abolished in autumn 2024.
• Local knowledge can be helpful, but one family's experience is not the same as evidence.
• The government publishes results by subject, five-year trends and class-size data. SchoolWize brings those figures together on one profile, free to browse, with a one-off Decision Pass for the full subject-by-subject detail.

Choosing a secondary school can feel like a decision made with incomplete information: a league-table score, an Ofsted judgement that may no longer reflect the school, and a collection of opinions from other families.

There is better information. The government publishes subject-level results, five-year trends, attendance and class-size data, and Ofsted publishes its inspection reports.

This guide sets out what to look for, what to question, and how to build a shortlist without relying on a single score or someone else's experience.

Start with the things that will affect your child

A useful comparison should begin with five questions.

How does the school perform in the subjects your child may take?

A whole-school score describes an average across many pupils and subjects. Your child's experience will be shaped by the English, maths, science, language, humanities, arts and other departments they actually attend.

Subject-level results give you a more relevant picture.

Are results improving or declining?

A single year can be misleading. Results may rise or fall because of a particular cohort, changes in staffing or other circumstances.

A five-year trend gives you more context. It can show whether performance is broadly improving, holding steady or moving in the other direction.

How large are the classes?

Class size is not a complete measure of school quality, but it is relevant. It affects how much individual attention pupils can receive and how much time teachers have to respond to them.

Are you likely to be offered a place?

A school may look impressive on paper but still be an unrealistic option if it is outside your admissions priority area.

Before spending too much time comparing schools, check the admissions rules, priority criteria, distance patterns and any faith or grammar-school requirements.

Does the school suit your child?

Results are only part of the decision. Consider SEND provision, travel time, the school's ethos, subjects and activities, pastoral support and the things your child is likely to value.

Reputation can help you identify questions to ask. It should not settle the decision on its own. Reputation is usually based on the past, and often on somebody else's experience of it.

Why one league-table score is not enough

Progress 8 and Attainment 8 are useful starting points, but neither tells you everything about a school.

Attainment 8 measures pupils' results across eight subjects. Progress 8 looks at how pupils performed compared with pupils nationally who had similar starting points.

A school with a strong overall score may have a department that is struggling. Another school with an average headline score may perform particularly well in the subjects your child enjoys.

The overall figure cannot show you that difference; subject-level results can show the department behind it.

For a long time, the detailed information was available mainly through government spreadsheets and separate data releases. Most parents therefore saw the headline measures but not the detail behind them.

Check the date on the Ofsted report

An Ofsted judgement may describe a school as it was several years ago, not necessarily as it is today.

There are several reasons for this. Schools judged Outstanding were exempt from routine inspection between 2012 and 2020. Inspections were then disrupted by the pandemic. As a result, some reports still available on Ofsted's website describe teaching and leadership from five or more years ago, sometimes under a different headteacher and with different staff.

There has also been a change in how Ofsted reports on schools. In 2024, the single overall grade was scrapped. Reports now contain more detailed judgements, while a new report-card format is being introduced.

So if someone tells you that a school is "Outstanding", ask two questions:

• When was that judgement made?
• Was it made under the old system?

Read the report itself. Look at what inspectors said about teaching, behaviour, leadership and pastoral care, and check the date on the front page.

Use local opinion carefully

Parents naturally ask other families about schools. A school may be described as "brilliant for maths" because one child did well there. Another may be labelled "rough" because of an incident several years ago. Those accounts may reflect something real, but they are still one child in one year: a sample size of one.

The staff who built that reputation may not be there now, and this year's intake is not last year's.

Use conversations with other parents to decide what to investigate. Then check the dated evidence for yourself.

The data is public, but it is not easy to use

The Department for Education publishes GCSE results by subject for state secondary schools in England. It also publishes historical data, class sizes and attendance information. Ofsted publishes inspection reports.

None of this is secret. The problem is that it is spread across different systems and presented in formats designed more for professionals than parents.

To compare three schools properly, you may need to open several websites, find the same measure in different places and copy figures into your own notes. That can take an evening, even before you start thinking about admissions rules and school visits.

What Schoolwize brings together

SchoolWize was built to make that comparison easier. It is the only platform publishing per-subject grade distributions for every state secondary school. Everything is free to browse: search, headline results, Ofsted history, national league tables and five-year trends. A one-off Decision Pass unlocks the full subject-by-subject grid when you want the depth.

On a school profile, you can see:

• GCSE results by subject and grade, so you can look at the departments most relevant to your child
• Five-year trends, rather than relying only on the latest results
• Class sizes, using official government data
• Local-authority and national averages, so each figure has context
• Admissions and priority-area information
• The latest Ofsted report

The figures are sourced from official government data and shown with their dates. There are no invented scores or editorial star ratings.

Comparable subscription services charge between £144 and £239 a year, renewed every year. The Decision Pass is a one-off payment that never auto-renews; exact prices are in the questions at the end. You buy the depth for as long as the decision takes.

You can start by searching for schools near you, comparing a shortlist or exploring the national GCSE tables.

A practical one-week plan

• Make a realistic list. Start with your local council's admissions information. Check which schools you can apply to, how priority areas work and whether the school has faith, grammar or other entry requirements.
• Look at the subjects that matter. For each school, check the results for the subjects your child is most likely to take, and read the five-year trend rather than focusing only on the latest result. The trends are free on every school; the full subject grid needs a Decision Pass.
• Read the Ofsted report. Check the date first, then the detail. If the report contains a pre-2024 single-word grade, treat it as a historical judgement rather than a complete description of the school today.
• Put class sizes into context. Compare class-size figures with the local and national averages. The number means more when you know how it compares with other schools.
• Use visits to investigate. Take the questions raised by the data with you. You might ask:
  • Has staffing changed in the departments that matter to your child?
  • What caused a noticeable rise or fall in results?
  • How does the school support pupils who need additional help?
  • How do subject choices work in Year 9?
  • What happens when a pupil starts to struggle?

An open evening is where you test what the data told you.

Frequently asked questions

When is the deadline for applying to secondary school?

In most of England, applications close on 31 October. Offers are usually sent on 1 March. Some areas use different arrangements, so check your local council's admissions page.

What is a good Progress 8 score?

Zero is the national benchmark. It means pupils made progress broadly in line with similar pupils nationally. A score above zero indicates better-than-average progress; a score below zero indicates worse-than-average progress. However, Progress 8 is still a whole-school measure. Look at subject-level results before using it to judge a school.

How current are the results?

The government publishes performance data each year after the exam season. SchoolWize shows the source and date alongside each figure, so you can see how recent the information is.

Do I have to pay for school comparison data?

The essentials are free: searching every school, headline results, Ofsted reports, national league tables and five-year trends. The full subject-by-subject grades grid needs a Decision Pass: £19.99 for a month, £39.99 for three months or £99.99 for a year, each a one-off payment that never auto-renews (£14.99 a month rolling is also available).

Make the decision with more than one number

No single figure can tell you whether a school is right for your child. The most useful picture comes from looking at several things together: subject results, five-year trends, class sizes, admissions information, the Ofsted report and your own visit.

For most families in England, the application deadline is 31 October. Start with the schools you could realistically apply to, compare the evidence and use visits to fill in the gaps.

Sources

1. School admissions — applying for a school place — GOV.UK
2. Compare school performance — Department for Education
3. Ofsted inspection reports

Look at the evidence

See the subject-level picture behind the headline

Browse league tables, compare a shortlist side by side, and use a Decision Pass for full grade-by-grade subject results.

Compare schoolsGCSE league table