Sussex is home to plenty of high-achieving secondaries, and the most recent exam season has seen them prove their mettle once again.
The Government has now released the 2024/25 school year’s preliminary performance figures for state-funded secondary schools across the country. This year however, the default metric used to compare schools will be their Attainment 8 scores, a purely performance-based figure derived from pupils’ results in up to eight GCSEs. The usual, improvement-based Progress 8 scores couldn’t be calculated this year, due to the pandemic disruptions this cohort faced back in primary school.
For families wondering how their local schools stacked up, we’ve created a league table of the highest performers across the East and West Sussex - plus the Brighton & Hove - council areas, using our own special metric. Attainment 8 scores go up to 90 and roughly align with the new GCSE 9-1 number grades, with the national average being 45.9 this year - somewhere between the standard and strong passing grades of 4 to 5.
But we’ve only included the Sussex schools which have done especially well, with scores above 50. Where two have identical scores, they have been ordered alphabetically.
Of course, grades aren’t the only thing that should be taken into account when considering what kind of learning environment a school provides. That’s why we’ve also made sure each one on our list had a positive mark in its latest Ofsted inspection. These are set to change from next month, but in the meantime, we’ve only included schools with either a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall grade before last September, or positive ratings across all categories if they’ve been inspected since.
Here are the the top 20 local schools which boasted the most exceptional performances in 2025:
1. St Richard's Catholic College
At the top of the list this year is St Richard’s, a Catholic secondary academy in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 58.4 – compared to a local average of 43 and a national average of 45.9. | Google
2. Downlands Community School
Next up is this local authority-maintained secondary school in Hassocks, West Sussex. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 57.2 – compared to a local average of 46.1 and a national average of 45.9. | Google
3. St Paul's Catholic College
St Paul’s is a Catholic secondary academy in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, which was most recently rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 55.4 – compared to a local average of 46.1 and a national average of 45.9. | Google
4. St Oscar Romero Catholic School
St Oscar Romero is a maintained Catholic school in Goring-By-Sea, in Worthing, West Sussex. In a recent Ofsted inspection, it was found to be ‘outstanding’ in all categories. In the 2024/25 school year, it had an Attainment 8 score of 55.1 – compared to a local average of 46.1 and a national average of 45.9. | Google