Local authority · London
Tower Hamlets has 29 secondary schools in this dataset — 21 state-funded and 8 independent. 2 are selective, admitting on an entrance test; 3 have a religious character; 23 have a sixth form.
The typical school here posts a three-year Progress 8 of +0.22 (above average) — 0.23 of a grade per subject above the national median of -0.01. That is the middle of the 16 schools in this area with a published score.
The spread inside the area is wider than the gap between areas: from -1.13 to +0.91. Which school a child goes to matters more here than which area you move to.
For 2026 entry the typical school here drew 0.80 first preferences per place — less pressure than the national median of 0.95×. 4 of the 16 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 6.8% 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 | Swanlea SchoolCommunity school | +0.91well above average | +0.61 to +1.012023–24 | 57.3 | 1.44× | Outstanding |
| 2 | Stepney All Saints Church of England Secondary SchoolVoluntary aided school | +0.69well above average | +0.57 to +0.962023–24 | 57.7 | 1.24× | Exceptional (achievement) |
| 3 | Mulberry School for GirlsAcademy converter | +0.63well above average | +0.43 to +0.792023–24 | 57.2 | 1.03× | Outstanding |
| 4 | Central Foundation Girls' SchoolVoluntary aided school | +0.59well above average | +0.31 to +0.682023–24 | 55.9 | 0.79× | Strong standard (achievement) |
| 5 | St Paul's Way Trust SchoolAcademy converter | +0.46above average | +0.36 to +0.732023–24 | 55.3 | 2.00× | Good |
| 6 | Oaklands SchoolCommunity school | +0.34above average | +0.16 to +0.672023–24 | 52.1 | 0.78× | Strong standard (achievement) |
| 7 | Canary Wharf College CrossharbourFree schools | +0.30above average | -0.01 to +0.652023–24 | 53.7 | 0.80× | Requires improvement |
| 8 | Mulberry Academy ShoreditchAcademy converter | +0.26above average | -0.20 to +0.212023–24 | 50.3 | 0.83× | Good |
| 9 | Mulberry Stepney Green Mathematics and Computing CollegeAcademy converter | +0.17average | -0.09 to +0.342023–24 | 52.4 | 0.63× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 10 | George Green's SchoolVoluntary controlled school | +0.10average | -0.14 to +0.252023–24 | 46.6 | 0.93× | Good (ungraded) |
| 11 | Morpeth SchoolCommunity school | +0.06average | +0.05 to +0.422023–24 | 49.6 | 0.81× | Good |
| 12 | Wapping High SchoolFree schools | -0.14average | -0.32 to +0.402023–24 | 44.5 | — | Good |
| 13 | Bow SchoolCommunity school | -0.15average | -0.58 to -0.202023–24 | 47.6 | 0.59× | Good (ungraded) |
| 14 | Langdon Park Community SchoolCommunity school | -0.28below average | -0.56 to -0.122023–24 | 46.4 | 0.63× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 15 | London Enterprise AcademyFree schools | -0.40below average | -0.41 to +0.202023–24 | 42.9 | 0.62× | — |
| 16 | Mulberry UTCUniversity technical college | -1.13well below average | -1.57 to -0.392023–24 | 35.3 | — | — |
6 of the 15 other schools ranked here have a confidence interval that overlaps Swanlea School'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. 6 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.
| Bishop Challoner Catholic School | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
|---|---|
| Darul Hadis Latifiah | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| East London Arts & Music | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| Jamiatul Ummah School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| London East Academy | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| London Islamic School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Madani Secondary Girls' School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Mazahirul Uloom London School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Mulberry Academy London Dock | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| New City College | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| OMG Education | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| The Complete Works | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Workers' Educational Association | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
The most sought-after school in Tower Hamlets for 2026 entry was St Paul's Way Trust School at 2.00 first preferences per place — 401 families named it first for 200 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets you apply for a state-funded place through the council's coordinated scheme, naming several schools in order of preference.