IT’S A HAT-TRICK!  RGS NEWCASTLE TOPS THE SUNDAY TIMES’ NORTH EAST’S INDEPENDENT SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLE FOR THIRD YEAR RUNNING 

The Royal Grammar School (RGS), Newcastle has once again been named The Sunday Times 2023 North East’s Top Independent Secondary School for Academic Performance, by Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide.   

Published online at 6am on Friday 9th December and printed in The Sunday Times on Sunday 11th December, Parent Power is widely acknowledged as the most authoritative survey of the country’s best performing schools. The 30th edition of Parent Power has ranked 1,700 schools according to the latest GCSE and A-Level exam results.  

The award comes on the back of RGS achieving this top accolade in 2022; the school was also awarded the highly coveted recognition of Sunday Times North East Independent School of the Decade in 2021. 

Geoffrey Stanford, Headmaster of RGS Newcastle, said:  "To be recognised again by The Sunday Times as the Top Independent Secondary School in the North East is a remarkable honour. We are rightly proud of our consistently outstanding public examination results, the product of our students’ hard work and determination plus the expertise and encouragement of our staff.  To have over 90% of A-Level grades at A*-B and 85.40% of GCSEs at A*-A, is incredible and competes with the best schools in the country.”  

Helen Davies, editor of The Sunday Times Parent Power guide, said: "League tables are not the only criteria a parent can use when choosing a school, but they are a good starting point. We want to celebrate excellence.  We want to champion schools that are doing wonderful work. We want our children to be well-nurtured and well-taught." 

Geoffrey Stanford added "The fact that this award comes after we’ve also celebrated our best year in terms of our social impact is also hugely rewarding.  In the past year, 7,300 individual students from 76 local state schools, shared in 23,000 hours of RGS Partnership activities.  More than 300 teachers from partner schools received 1,500 hours of CPD or collaborated on curriculum development. Over 40 RGS Partnerships projects have taken place, including Maths, Physics, Computer Science, Robotics, Sport, Languages, Classics, Debating, UCAS Mentoring and much more.  

This award rounds off what has been an incredibly proud few months for everyone involved with the school."  

The region’s top ranking independent schools are (with national ranking in brackets):

1. Royal Grammar School, Newcastle (72^nd nationally)

2. Yarm School, Stockton (129^th nationally)

3. Durham High School for Girls, Durham (130^th nationally)

4. Dame Allan’s Girls’ School, Newcastle (141^st nationally)

5. Dame Allan’s Boys’ School, Newcastle (169^th nationally)

6. Newcastle High School for Girls, Newcastle (240^th nationally)

7. Newcastle School for Boys, Newcastle (282^nd nationally)

8. Durham School, Durham (283^rd nationally)

9. Westfield School, Durham (349^th nationally)

10. Longridge Towers School, Berwick Northumberland (385^th nationally)