The Good Schools Guide

About the number one UK trusted school guide.

Unbiased and candid school reviews. In-depth articles on all aspects of education. Trusted by parents for over thirty years. Available in print, online or through our expert consultants.

The Good Schools Guide is the number one trusted guide to schools in the UK, helping parents in every aspect of choosing the best education for their children. This site provides a comprehensive collection of advice and education data on state, independent, grammar, boarding, selective and non-selective schools, tutors, special needs, university choice and much more.

We also offer tailor-made individual advice and support to parents as they make important decisions on school choices (see The Good Schools Guide Education Consultants). The Good Schools Guide is independent, forthright, well-informed and unbiased, which gives it unique authority and has earned it the trust of parents and educational organisations worldwide. 

How we select the schools we review

We review more than 1,100 schools, covering state and independent, boarding and day, mainstream and special sectors. If a school is not reviewed in The Guide this does not necessarily mean it is not a good school – our selection is a personal one. In any event, we are in the process of gently expanding our coverage to include more good local schools. If you know of one that we have missed, or have got wrong, please tell us: it’s parents like you who have made The Guide as good as it is.

An Education Manifesto from The Good Schools Guide

State schools should all be properly funded and well led, with good teachers, good discipline and lots of ambition for their pupils. The system should help every child reach their potential.

Government initiatives should be based on evidence and research, and funding should leave as much discretion as possible to schools.

Catchment maps explained

Catchment areas can and do change. Living in catchment one year does not guarantee admission to a school in future years. Always check with the school's own admissions authority for the current admissions criteria. Admissions criteria may include, but is not exclusive to: siblings, faith, ability, distance from school, SEN.

Contact us

General enquiries: 0203 286 6824; Email: office@goodschoolsguide.co.uk

Press enquiries: Caroline Skinner 07976 610685; caroline.skinner@goodschoolsguide.co.uk
Francis Hamlyn 07760 161373
francis.hamlyn@goodschoolsguide.co.uk

Advertising enquiries: Charlotte Hollingshead 01395 576829 or 07747 614090; chollingshead@publishingmatters.co.uk

Data Services

The Good Schools Guide licenses some of its data for commercial use. The standard offerings include basic school information for all UK primary and secondary schools (30,405 in total) and coarse catchment data for state schools (27,471 in total). This information is provided subject to the terms and conditions in the Good Schools Guide's Data Licence.

Excellent Performance Award Winners 2015 A-M

Putting the WOW into teaching...  If a school has won one of our subject awards, it has outranked all other English schools in its category (independent, state selective or state non-selective) for the subject and exam concerned: teaching is likely to be very good. We also give Excellence awards to the runner up schools in each category.

Excellent Performance Award Winners 2015 N-Z

Putting the WOW into teaching...  If a school has won one of our subject awards, it has outranked all other English schools in its category (independent, state selective or state non-selective) for the subject and exam concerned: teaching is likely to be very good. We also give Excellence awards to the runner up schools in each category.

Fair Comment

There are three elements to fair comment: It must concern something of which you can have personal knowledge; It must be comment; It must be fair. We may refuse to accept your comment if it does not fit with the Fair Comment guidance below. You are allowed to defame a school if what you are saying is fair/honest comment, we will support your right to do so if you stay within the law.

FAQs about subscribing

By subscribing to the Good Schools Guide online you can access our detailed, in-depth and often amusing reviews of approximately 1,100 schools we've visited, analysed and investigated (a mix of state schools, private schools and special schools). Also extensive schools data, compare schools, catchment maps and entry and exit schools.

FAQs from schools

The Good Schools Guide is an independent guide (we do not charge schools for their entries). The choice of schools for The Guide is a personal one, based on recommendations of parents and others who know the schools well. We periodically review schools included in The Guide and reconsider those schools not currently included but on the 'suggested list' to see if they should be added.

How to find a school

Beneath its elegant new exterior The Good Schools Guide website is bursting with facts, figures and feisty opinions on all aspects of education. In addition to the 1,100 witty, informative reviews – written by parents, for parents – there are statistical data (pupil numbers, exam results, university destinations, qualifications from BTEC to Pre-U) and much more.

How to use the Good Schools Guide

Beneath its elegant exterior The Good Schools Guide website is bursting with facts, figures and feisty opinions on all aspects of education. In addition to the 1,100 witty, informative reviews – written by parents, for parents – there are statistical data (pupil numbers, exam results, university destinations, qualifications from BTEC to Pre-U) and much more. Whether you’re a wordsmith or a number cruncher, there’s something for everyone. To help you get the most out of what our website has to offer we’ve put together a brief guide.

In the News

The Good Schools Guide in the press, including The Telegraph, The Times, Daily Mail, Evening Standard... For all press enquiries please contact office@goodschoolsguide.co.uk

Licensing and advertising information

Charlotte Hollingshead

Publishing Matters, Friston Studios, Coreway, Sidford, Sidmouth, Devon EX10 9SE

www.publishingmatters.co.uk; chollingshead@publishingmatters.co.uk

Permission to use The Good Schools Guide logo

Schools that have been reviewed by The Good Schools Guide are permitted to add a Good Schools Guide logo to their site, and will find this is an excellent way for parents to quickly view exam performance, GSG review and catchment maps. You can customise your code so the logo links directly to your school page on the Good Schools Guide by adding in your schools Unique Reference Number.

If you have been reviewed by The Good Schools Guide and want prospective parents to read your review via your site, you will need to license your review. Please Contact Charlotte Hollingshead for information on licences: chollingshead@publishingmatter.co.uk

Primary Schools National Offers Day 2017

Advice from The Good Schools Guide for parents who are disappointed with the offer their child has received for a place at primary school on national offers day April 18th 2017.

Privacy Policy

Lucas Publications Limited ("Lucas", "we", "our", "us") respects the privacy rights of its contributors of editorial its online visitors ("you", "your", "yours"). We recognise the importance of protecting the information collected about them. We have adopted a Privacy Policy that guides how we collect, store and use the information that you provide us with.

Revision: Top ten tips for parents

The Good Schools Guide's top ten tips for parents of children revising for exams.

School data explained

What data is used? All these measures are based on the past three years' results combined (2012, 2013, 2014), to give greater stability. KS2 data is available for English state junior schools, GCSE and A level data for English senior schools. Please note that the results of exams taken in June 2015 are not available until the following year, and so are unlikely to be reflected in these tables until April 2016.

Secondary Schools National Offers Day 2017

Advice from The Good Schools Guide for parents who are disappointed with the offers their child has received for a place at secondary school on national offers day March 1st 2017.

Support Form

If you experience any issues with the website, please complete this form. We will endeavour to resolve any issues within 24hrs.

Terms & Conditions

for the Sale of Goods and the Provision of Services by Lucas Publications Ltd on this Website

INTRODUCTION

1. Please read these terms and conditions very carefully before ordering any goods and/or services from our website.

• Part One sets out the terms and conditions you agree to when you buy goods and services from our website.

• Part Two sets out the terms and conditions you agree to when you buy goods and services from our website

• Part Three sets out the terms and conditions you agree to when you wish to make use of our Education Consultants service referral.

• Part Four sets out the general conditions which apply in addition to Parts One, Two and Three.

Terms and Conditions prize draw

Applies to all Good Schools Guide competitions.

Terms and Conditions SurveyMonkey questionnaire

We will use your answers to the questions below to inform our description of the services that the company provides, and to feed back to the company information which they can use to improve those services. By responding to this questionnaire you grant us permission to do this.

The Good Schools Guide accessibility policy

The Good Schools Guide (GSG) aim to make our websites accessible and usable for people of all abilities and disabilities, including older audiences, and those with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments. Many people use assisting technologies to allow them, for example, to view websites in easier-to-read colours, with larger fonts or as spoken text, or to navigate around a site using the keyboard only.

The Good Schools Guide award winners 2015

The Good Schools Guide award winners 2015. Each year we give awards to schools to celebrate teaching excellence in individual subjects. We base these awards on our WOW Factor calculations (50 is the average value, and 70 is a very good score) - a combination of: Relative popularity; Relative performance; Absolute performance; Percentage taking.

The Good Schools Guide awards 2015

Putting the WOW into teaching...  If a school has won one of our subject awards, it has outranked all other English schools in its category (independent, state selective or state non-selective) for the subject and exam concerned: teaching is likely to be very good. We also give Excellence awards to the runner up schools in each category.

The Good Schools Guide awards 2016

The Good Schools Guide regrets that we have currently only been able to publish awards for the best performing independent, comprehensive and grammar schools based on the 2015 exam results.

The Good Schools Guide Boarding Schools

Boarding, twenty-first century style, is flourishing. The number of families choosing boarding schools for their children is increasing and the decision to board is, as often as not, made by children themselves. This book, our first dedicated to boarding schools, contains over 350 of The Good Schools Guide’s highly informative and famously frank reviews. Every single school has been visited by our writers; we check out everything from dorms to food and weekend activities. We also speak to parents and, most important of all, pupils.

The Good Schools Guide Partners

The Good Schools Guide partners include 192, Netmums, angels & urchins, Independent School Show, Equestrian Index, Fulbright Commission, Gresham Books, Knight Frank, Microsoft Bing, and many others. If you would like to explore the opportunity of becoming a partner with The Good Schools Guide please contact: office@goodschoolsguide.co.uk

The Good Schools Guide to tutors

Everything you need to know about choosing a tutor for your child.

Website access terms

Standard terms and conditions for website access. Your access to and use of this site, provided by Lucas Publications is subject to these terms and conditions. Your use of this site constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions. Lucas Publications reserves the right to change these terms and conditions at any time by posting the changes on the site.

Writing for the Good Schools Guide International: What we're looking for

We're looking for parents who are (native English-speaking) ex-pats, and who may not be educational professionals but are experienced in looking at and dealing with schools for their own children.