Ipswich School named among the best in the region

In the list of independent schools, Ipswich was ranked as sixth best in the region, missing out to the Perse and Leys schools in Cambridge, Chigwell School and Norwich School.

Among state schools, Colchester Royal Grammar School achieved the top place in the region, and ninth nationally, while Colchester County High School for Girls came third.

However, no state high school in Suffolk made it into the top ten ranking.

The rankings in the secondary school league tables were determined for this year using data from 2017-2019, due to the fact teacher assessment has been used during the pandemic.

Alastair McCall, editor of the Sunday Times School Guide said: “The need for clarity about school examination performance has never been greater after two years 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."

Based on exam achievement, a school's place is calculated using the percentage of A level grades above B, and the percentage of GCSE grades above 7/A.

For this purpose, A level grades are weighted twice as much as GCSEs.

Amongst primary schools, the regional table was topped by Chipping Hill Primary School in Witham, near Braintree, with the rest of the table dominated again by schools from Essex.

Mr McCall said: "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.”