Local authority · North West
Cheshire East has 28 secondary schools in this dataset — 25 state-funded and 3 independent. 3 have a religious character; 21 have a sixth form.
The typical school here posts a three-year Progress 8 of +0.05 (average) — 0.06 of a grade per subject above the national median of -0.01. That is the middle of the 21 schools in this area with a published score.
The spread inside the area is wider than the gap between areas: from -1.67 to +0.49. Which school a child goes to matters more here than which area you move to.
For 2026 entry the typical school here drew 0.99 first preferences per place — more pressure than the national median of 0.95×. 9 of the 21 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 7.8% for the typical school here, below 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 | Sandbach High School and Sixth Form CollegeAcademy converter | +0.49above average | +0.28 to +0.672023–24 | 55.3 | 1.00× | Good |
| 2 | The Fallibroome AcademyAcademy converter | +0.45above average | +0.38 to +0.742023–24 | 55.2 | 1.16× | Good |
| 3 | St Thomas More Catholic High SchoolAcademy converter | +0.31above average | +0.01 to +0.512023–24 | 50.1 | 1.28× | Good (ungraded) |
| 4 | Poynton High SchoolAcademy converter | +0.26above average | +0.10 to +0.492023–24 | 56.0 | 1.02× | Good (ungraded) |
| 5 | Alsager SchoolAcademy converter | +0.16average | +0.04 to +0.392023–24 | 50.9 | 0.97× | Good |
| 6 | Knutsford AcademyAcademy converter | +0.13average | -0.24 to +0.182023–24 | 54.8 | 1.08× | Strong standard (achievement) |
| 7 | Wilmslow High SchoolCommunity school | +0.11average | +0.00 to +0.312023–24 | 52.6 | 1.05× | Standards maintained (ungraded) |
| 8 | Tytherington SchoolAcademy converter | +0.11average | -0.09 to +0.282023–24 | 51.8 | 1.05× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 9 | Shavington AcademyAcademy converter | +0.10average | -0.18 to +0.262023–24 | 48.3 | 1.15× | Good (ungraded) |
| 10 | Brine Leas SchoolAcademy converter | +0.08average | -0.26 to +0.122023–24 | 52.0 | 0.96× | Good (ungraded) |
| 11 | Sandbach SchoolFree schools | +0.05average | +0.11 to +0.452023–24 | 48.7 | 1.07× | Good (Concerns) (ungraded) |
| 12 | All Hallows Catholic CollegeAcademy converter | +0.05average | -0.20 to +0.202023–24 | 49.8 | 0.73× | — |
| 13 | Holmes Chapel Comprehensive SchoolAcademy converter | -0.05average | -0.22 to +0.152023–24 | 52.4 | 0.93× | Good |
| 14 | Eaton Bank AcademyAcademy converter | -0.05average | -0.34 to +0.092023–24 | 48.5 | 0.99× | — |
| 15 | Congleton High SchoolAcademy converter | -0.23below average | -0.67 to -0.272023–24 | 44.8 | 0.99× | Good (ungraded) |
| 16 | Middlewich High SchoolAcademy converter | -0.34below average | -0.37 to +0.102023–24 | 39.6 | 1.19× | Good |
| 17 | Ruskin Community High SchoolCommunity school | -0.35below average | -0.46 to +0.032023–24 | 40.4 | 0.93× | Good (Concerns) (ungraded) |
| 18 | The Oaks AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.66well below average | -0.82 to -0.182023–24 | 33.5 | 0.90× | Good |
| 19 | Sir William Stanier SchoolAcademy sponsor led | -1.04well below average | -1.17 to -0.632023–24 | 30.1 | 0.77× | Needs attention (achievement) |
| 20 | Crewe Engineering and Design UTCUniversity technical college | -1.19well below average | -1.32 to -0.682023–24 | 30.1 | — | — |
| 21 | Cheshire Studio SchoolStudio schools | -1.67well below average | -2.15 to -1.102023–24 | 22.2 | — | Good (ungraded) |
7 of the 20 other schools ranked here have a confidence interval that overlaps Sandbach High School and Sixth Form College'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. 10 schools here have an interval that includes zero (shaded above) — those cannot be told apart from an average school nationally.
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.
| Beech Hall School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
|---|---|
| Cheshire College - South & West | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| Malbank School and Sixth Form College | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| Reaseheath College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| The King's School In Macclesfield | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| The Lodge AP | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| The Macclesfield Academy | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
The most sought-after school in Cheshire East for 2026 entry was St Thomas More Catholic High School at 1.28 first preferences per place — 159 families named it first for 124 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 Cheshire East 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 Cheshire East you apply for a state-funded place through the council's coordinated scheme, naming several schools in order of preference.