Local authority · West Midlands
Stoke-on-Trent has 22 secondary schools in this dataset — 17 state-funded and 5 independent. 1 is selective, admitting on an entrance test; 4 have a religious character; 8 have a sixth form.
The typical school here posts a three-year Progress 8 of -0.33 (below average) — 0.32 of a grade per subject below the national median of -0.01. That is the middle of the 14 schools in this area with a published score.
The spread inside the area is wider than the gap between areas: from -0.93 to +0.68. Which school a child goes to matters more here than which area you move to.
For 2026 entry the typical school here drew 1.01 first preferences per place — more pressure than the national median of 0.95×. 8 of the 15 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 10.0% 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 Joseph's CollegeAcademy converter | +0.68well above average | +0.58 to +1.042023–24 | 63.8 | 1.90× | — |
| 2 | Co-op Academy Stoke-On-TrentAcademy sponsor led | +0.15average | +0.05 to +0.462023–24 | 45.1 | 1.03× | Good (ungraded) |
| 3 | Trentham AcademyAcademy converter | +0.10average | -0.02 to +0.432023–24 | 50.0 | 1.25× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 4 | Thistley Hough AcademyAcademy sponsor led | +0.09average | +0.03 to +0.432023–24 | 44.5 | 1.01× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 5 | St Thomas More Catholic AcademyAcademy converter | -0.16average | -0.41 to -0.012023–24 | 42.7 | 1.00× | Good (ungraded) |
| 6 | Ormiston Meridian AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.25below average | -0.44 to -0.032023–24 | 42.2 | 0.89× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 7 | Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.30below average | -0.84 to -0.462023–24 | 44.2 | 0.89× | Good (ungraded) |
| 8 | The Excel AcademyAcademy converter | -0.37below average | -0.76 to -0.382023–24 | 42.1 | 1.14× | Good (ungraded) |
| 9 | St Margaret Ward Catholic AcademyAcademy converter | -0.38below average | -0.64 to -0.242023–24 | 44.1 | 1.05× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 10 | Discovery AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.48below average | -0.83 to -0.482023–24 | 38.6 | 0.94× | Requires improvement |
| 11 | St Peter's CofE AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.50below average | -0.77 to -0.392023–24 | 37.8 | 0.81× | — |
| 12 | Haywood AcademyAcademy converter | -0.60well below average | -0.74 to -0.372023–24 | 36.7 | 0.78× | Good |
| 13 | Birches Head AcademyAcademy converter | -0.78well below average | -1.15 to -0.752023–24 | 33.2 | 0.53× | Needs attention (achievement) |
| 14 | Ormiston Horizon AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.93well below average | -1.32 to -0.932023–24 | 37.6 | 1.02× | Good |
0 of the 13 other schools ranked here have a confidence interval that overlaps St Joseph's 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. 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.
| City of Stoke-On-Trent Sixth Form College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
|---|---|
| Co-op Academy Florence MacWilliams | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| Excellence Girls Academy | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Kinetic Academy | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Phoenix Independent School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Sporting Stars Academy | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Stoke-on-Trent College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| The Registry | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
The most sought-after school in Stoke-on-Trent for 2026 entry was St Joseph's College at 1.90 first preferences per place — 285 families named it first for 150 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 Stoke-on-Trent 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 Stoke-on-Trent you apply for a state-funded place through the council's coordinated scheme, naming several schools in order of preference.