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What Is Progress 8 and Why It Matters More Than League Tables
Progress 8 measures the value a school adds to its pupils. Here's why it's a better indicator of school quality than raw results.
FindGreatSchools Team
When comparing secondary schools, many parents focus on Attainment 8 scores, the raw GCSE results. But Progress 8 tells a much more important story: how much progress did the school help pupils make?
How Progress 8 Works
Progress 8 compares each pupil's GCSE results against the national average for pupils with similar Key Stage 2 results. A score of 0 means average progress, positive means above average, and negative means below. A school scoring +0.5 is helping pupils achieve roughly half a grade higher than expected across eight subjects.
Why It Matters
A school in a leafy suburb might have high Attainment 8 scores because its intake is already high-achieving. But if its Progress 8 is negative, it's actually underperforming; those pupils would have done better elsewhere. Conversely, a school in a disadvantaged area with modest raw results but a strong positive Progress 8 is genuinely adding value.
Finding Progress 8 on FindGreatSchools
Search for any secondary on our school search: each profile shows Attainment 8 and Progress 8 in the performance section, and our comparison tool puts up to four schools' scores side by side. We source this data directly from the DfE's official performance tables, updated annually. Our best secondary schools by area pages rank schools on a composite that weighs progress, not just raw results.
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