Local authority · North West
Blackpool has 13 secondary schools in this dataset — 10 state-funded and 3 independent. 2 have a religious character; 3 have a sixth form.
The typical school here posts a three-year Progress 8 of -0.89 (well below average) — 0.88 of a grade per subject below the national median of -0.01. That is the middle of the 7 schools in this area with a published score.
The spread inside the area is wider than the gap between areas: from -1.45 to +0.17. Which school a child goes to matters more here than which area you move to.
For 2026 entry the typical school here drew 0.93 first preferences per place — less pressure than the national median of 0.95×. 3 of the 8 schools with published figures were named first by more families than they had places for. A high figure means popular, not good, and it is not your chance of a place — that depends on where you live.
Overall absence runs at 9.8% for the typical school here, above the national median of 8.7%. Absence is a plainer signal of whether pupils are turning up and engaged than any grade average.
Ordered on the three-year average Progress 8, which is steadier than any single year. Read the confidence interval beside each score before you read the order: it is the range the school's true figure is likely to sit in, and a wide one means a small year group rather than an unpredictable school.
| School | Progress 8 | 95% interval | Attainment 8 | Pressure | Ofsted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St George's School A Church of England AcademyAcademy converter | +0.17average | +0.18 to +0.592023–24 | 51.4 | 1.44× | Improved significantly (ungraded) |
| 2 | St Mary's Catholic AcademyAcademy converter | -0.69well below average | -0.89 to -0.502023–24 | 42.3 | 1.20× | Good |
| 3 | Montgomery AcademyAcademy converter | -0.74well below average | -1.11 to -0.732023–24 | 38.0 | 0.94× | Good |
| 4 | Highfield Leadership AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.89well below average | -1.25 to -0.672023–24 | 35.7 | 0.65× | Requires improvement |
| 5 | Armfield AcademyFree schools | -1.06well below average | -1.34 to -0.882023–24 | 35.6 | 1.13× | Good |
| 6 | Blackpool Aspire AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -1.13well below average | -1.54 to -1.082023–24 | 33.8 | 0.83× | Requires improvement |
| 7 | Unity Academy BlackpoolAcademy sponsor led | -1.45well below average | -2.21 to -1.672023–24 | 29.1 | 0.91× | — |
0 of the 6 other schools ranked here have a confidence interval that overlaps St George's School A Church of England Academy's. On these figures they cannot be told apart from the school at the top of the table, and the order between them is not a finding.
These are not bottom of the table — they are not in it. A school with no published score has not done badly; the measure was not calculated for it, and the reason differs.
| BFC School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
|---|---|
| Blackpool and the Fylde College | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| Lancashire Alternative Provision | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| South Shore Academy | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| The Blackpool Sixth Form College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| Tower Learning Centre Independent School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
The most sought-after school in Blackpool for 2026 entry was St George's School A Church of England Academy at 1.44 first preferences per place — 298 families named it first for 207 places.
Pressure is not a chance of admission. A school with two applicants per place can still admit every family living near it, while a less popular school further away turns you down. Distance from the gate is usually what decides it, and no national figure can tell you that for your own address.
See Blackpool on the map →The same schools on a map, with every filter: results, admissions pressure, Ofsted, faith and selection — or sorted by distance from your own postcode.Admissions do not stop at an authority line. If you live near one, your realistic list of schools spans both sides of it.
The results here are for 2023–24 and earlier, so they describe pupils who have already left. Nothing on this page covers sixth-form results, pastoral care, music, sport or drama, or how a school feels to walk around — which is what parents most often say settled it. The ranking is a starting point for a shortlist, not a verdict on a school.
Nor is it a prediction of a place. Admission depends on each school's criteria and, most often, on how far you live from it — and in Blackpool you apply for a state-funded place through the council's coordinated scheme, naming several schools in order of preference.