Queen Elizabeth’s School has today been announced as the Sunday Times Schools Guide top State Secondary School for A-levels 2025, jointly with Henrietta Barnett School.
QE also came second (just behind Henrietta Barnett) among state-funded schools in the overall Sunday Times Parent Power rankings for the year, which are based on both A-level and GCSE results. This year’s A-level cohort performed very strongly indeed at the highest grades – 52.9% of A-levels taken were at A* – while the story was similar at GCSE, with 87% gaining grades 8-9.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We celebrated a fantastic set of A-level results in August, and it is now great to receive independent confirmation that our leavers’ performance places this School at the very pinnacle of the country’s state schools. In fact, QE is in truly rarified company across all UK schools – whether in the maintained or independent sectors.
“At QE we support our students to be free-thinking scholars, going beyond their exam courses to seek out new insights and new solutions. We focus on excellence across the board, with a very extensive programme of academic and extra-curricular enrichment delivered through our QE Flourish programme. Boys receive individual support through bespoke tutorials, while our Personal Development Time programme equips them to navigate our fast-changing world, helping them become kind and responsible citizens.
“We encourage boys to start thinking ahead early in their time here: our QE Futures operates across all year groups, inspiring boys by creatively presenting a range of exciting opportunities for higher education and their eventual careers. Extensive support and detailed guidance are offered to pupils as they approach university applications. The fruits of this may be seen in the outstanding destinations of our students. Fifty-four of the 2024 cohort will be taking up places at Oxford or Cambridge; perhaps even more remarkably, 55% received offers from a university in the QS World Top 5.
“Since we are a selective school, it is true that our boys are very bright, but the evidence shows QE brings out the very best from them. Our Progress 8 value-added measure at GCSE was +1.22, which means that pupils here achieved on average more than a grade higher in their GCSEs than would have been expected based on their attainment at primary school.
“In short, QE offers, as we like to say, a state school education like no other – a very rounded educational experience, which nurtures as well as stretches our highly able pupils.”
Today’s announcement adds to QE’s long record of success in the annual Parent Power academic rankings. In addition, QE has also won the separate Sunday Times Parent Power State Secondary School of the Year award three times, for 2001, 2007 and 2022 – an award which recognises overall achievements across all aspects of the School’s life.