The 12 highest-achieving state sixth forms for A Levels in Leeds - as students prepare for new school year

For this year’s GCSEs candidates planning to move onto their A Levels next, the new school year is almost here.

Learners across Leeds - and the wider country - will return to the classroom for the 2025/26 school year around the start of September. For many of those entering the sixth form, this could mean starting at a brand new school or college, one which will guide them through these important qualifications and help prepare them for life after school.

With this in mind, we’ve revisited the Government’s latest performance figures (currently for 2023/24) for state-funded sixth form colleges and secondary schools, picking out the top A Level performers across the Leeds City Council area. The key figure we’ve used is their A Level performance point score, a unique measurement derived from exam results that gives them a score out of 60. You’ll also see the overall ‘average grades’ each school’s students achieved across their A Level entries - and we’ve only included those with at least a C+ average.

But grades aren’t everything, so we have also checked that each school or college included had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before new changes to the inspection system started to come into effect, or, if they’ve been inspected more recently, had at least ‘good’ grades across the board. This means that the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management and student safeguarding were all found to meet or exceed Government standards last time the school was inspected.

Here were the 12 state sixth forms from across the wider Leeds area that made the cut: