Local authority · South East
Southampton has 17 secondary schools in this dataset — 15 state-funded and 2 independent. 3 have a religious character; 5 have a sixth form.
The typical school here posts a three-year Progress 8 of -0.38 (below average) — 0.37 of a grade per subject below the national median of -0.01. That is the middle of the 11 schools in this area with a published score.
The spread inside the area is wider than the gap between areas: from -1.01 to +0.81. Which school a child goes to matters more here than which area you move to.
For 2026 entry the typical school here drew 1.03 first preferences per place — more pressure than the national median of 0.95×. 8 of the 13 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 11.8% 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 | Saint George Catholic Voluntary Aided College SouthamptonVoluntary aided school | +0.81well above average | +0.62 to +1.022023–24 | 59.6 | 1.57× | Outstanding |
| 2 | St Anne's Catholic SchoolAcademy converter | +0.65well above average | +0.52 to +0.922023–24 | 56.7 | 0.81× | Outstanding (ungraded) |
| 3 | Cantell SchoolFoundation school | +0.25above average | +0.02 to +0.392023–24 | 46.0 | 1.33× | Outstanding |
| 4 | Upper Shirley High SchoolAcademy converter | +0.07average | -0.10 to +0.292023–24 | 49.5 | 1.15× | Good |
| 5 | Bitterne Park SchoolFoundation school | -0.26below average | -0.34 to -0.052023–24 | 45.8 | 1.01× | Good |
| 6 | Oasis Academy MayfieldAcademy sponsor led | -0.38below average | -0.58 to -0.162023–24 | 40.1 | 0.70× | Good |
| 7 | Weston Secondary SchoolAcademy sponsor led | -0.52well below average | -0.96 to -0.462023–24 | 33.7 | 0.60× | Requires improvement |
| 8 | Oasis Academy SholingAcademy sponsor led | -0.58well below average | -0.86 to -0.462023–24 | 40.6 | 1.08× | — |
| 9 | Woodlands Community CollegeFoundation school | -0.87well below average | -1.10 to -0.682023–24 | 34.8 | 1.07× | Good |
| 10 | Redbridge Community SchoolFoundation school | -0.90well below average | -1.19 to -0.802023–24 | 36.1 | 1.03× | Good |
| 11 | Oasis Academy Lord's HillAcademy sponsor led | -1.01well below average | -1.14 to -0.682023–24 | 39.0 | 0.28× | Inadequate |
1 of the 10 other schools ranked here have a confidence interval that overlaps Saint George Catholic Voluntary Aided College Southampton'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. 1 school here has 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.
| Itchen College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
|---|---|
| King Edward VI School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Regents Park Community College | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| Richard Taunton Sixth Form College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| St Mark's Church of England School | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| The Gregg School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
The most sought-after school in Southampton for 2026 entry was Saint George Catholic Voluntary Aided College Southampton at 1.57 first preferences per place — 299 families named it first for 191 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 Southampton 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 Southampton you apply for a state-funded place through the council's coordinated scheme, naming several schools in order of preference.