From Middlesbrough to Sunderland, Newcastle to Northumberland, many of the North East’s recent school leavers excelled in their A Levels last year - and their schools have got the stats to prove it.
The Government finally released the latest performance figures for state-funded sixth form colleges and secondary schools on Thursday (February 13), meaning England’s top A Level performers have now been named. We’ve used this new data to compare how those across the region’s local authority areas did, to create a league table of the region’s stand-out sixth forms in the 2023/24 school year.
They have been ranked by their A Level performance point scores, a unique measurement derived from students’ A Level results that gives them a score out of 60. You’ll also see the overall ‘average grades’ each school’s students achieved across their A Level entries - and we’ve only included those with at least a B- average.
We also checked that each school included had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before this measure was recently dropped, or, if they’ve been inspected more recently, had at least ‘good’ grades across the board. This means that the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management and student safeguarding were all found to meet or exceed government standards last time the school was inspected.
Here were the 19 state sixth forms from across the North East that made the grade:

9. Carmel College
Carmel College is a Catholic secondary school and sixth form in Darlington. In a recent inspection, it was rated ‘outstanding’ in all categories by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of 37.4 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google

10. Gosforth Academy
Gosforth is a secondary school and sixth form in Newcastle. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of 37.14 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google

11. Southmoor Academy
Southmoor Academy is a secondary school and sixth form in Sunderland. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of exactly 36 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google

12. Whitley Bay High School
This is a high school and sixth form in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside for students aged 13 and up. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it had an A Level point score of 35.94 - giving it an average grade of B-. | Google


