Best and worst secondary schools in Sussex in 2025

The Department for Education (DfE) has released its annual secondary school performance tables for 2024/25.

This shows how well schools across England performed at the end of Key Stage 4, and includes performance measures for every secondary school in England.

Here is how secondary schools in East and West Sussex stacked up this year.

Best and worst secondary schools in East Sussex

There were 48 schools in East Sussex ranked for their overall performance at the end of key stage 2 in 2025.

There was no data available or applicable for some schools.

Schools listed were ranked on an ‘Attainment 8’ score.

This is based on how well pupils in a school have performed in up to eight qualifications, which include English, maths, three English Baccalaureate qualifications including sciences, computer science, history, geography, and languages, and three other additional approved qualifications.

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Attainment measures show how pupils have performed in tests and assessments, but do not take pupils’ starting points into account.

Schools on the list include:

• Academy – government-funded but run by an academy trust rather than a local authority
• Special school – schools that specialise in educating pupils with special educational needs
• Independent school – privately funded
• Maintained school – government-funded and run by a local authority

Topping the list was Mayfield School, followed by Lewes Old Grammar School and St Richard’s Catholic College.

Here is the full list of the secondary schools in East Sussex based on the Attainment 8 score:

Bede’s have notified that the Department for Education information regarding them is incorrect. The data for the English GCSE for 2024/25 grade 5 and above should be 74% and the maths score should read 70%. The level 8 attainment should be 60.9. This would put them second on the list.

Best and worst secondary schools in West Sussex

In West Sussex, Downlands Community School topped the list.

Shoreham College was second, with St Paul’s Catholic College in third.

A total of 63 schools were ranked, with it being that, once again, for some schools, no data was available or applicable for some schools.

Here is the full list of the secondary schools in East Sussex based on the Attainment 8 score:

The DfE said it is important to note that it was not able to calculate Progress 8 scores for academic years 2024/25 and 2025/26.

This is because there is no KS2 assessment data available to calculate the baseline for Progress 8 for these years due to Covid-19 disruption.

It added: “Pupils included in this performance data will have experienced some disruption due to Covid-19 earlier in their schooling, which will have affected individual pupils and schools differently.”