Frequently asked questions

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What the measures mean

What is Progress 8?

It measures how much better or worse a school's pupils did across eight GCSEs than pupils nationally who started from the same place at the end of primary school. Because it compares like with like, it is the fairest single measure of what a school itself added — as opposed to what its pupils arrived able to do.

What is a good Progress 8 score?

Zero is the national average, not a fail. Roughly: +0.5 or above is well above average, -0.5 or below is well below, and anything between is broadly average. A school at -0.2 is much closer to typical than the minus sign suggests.

What is Attainment 8?

The average grade points a school's pupils achieved across their best eight GCSEs, out of a maximum around 90. The national median was 44.7 in 2023/24. Unlike Progress 8 it makes no adjustment for prior attainment, so it largely tracks who attends the school.

What does "grade 5 or above in English and maths" mean?

The share of pupils reaching at least grade 5 in both subjects. Grade 5 is a "strong pass"; grade 4 is a "standard pass". The national median for grade 5+ was 41% in 2024/25 — so a school where half the year group manages it is above average, which surprises most people.

How do the 9–1 GCSE grades compare with the old letters?

Grade 9 is above the old A*, 7 is roughly an A, 4 is roughly a C, and 1 is the lowest pass. There are more grades at the top end than the old system had, which is the point of the change.

What are SATs, and what does "expected standard" mean?

Key stage 2 tests, taken in Year 6, covering reading and grammar/punctuation/spelling, with writing assessed by teachers. "The expected standard in reading, writing and maths" is the share of pupils meeting it in all three combined — the national median was 64% in 2024/25. The "higher standard" is a smaller group working meaningfully above it.

What is the EBacc?

Not a qualification: a group of subjects (English, maths, sciences, a language, and history or geography). Schools report what share of pupils entered the full set, which says more about a school's curriculum choices than about its results.

What do A-level points mean?

An average score per entry, where each grade is worth a set number of points. It lets schools with different numbers of entries be compared, but it says nothing about which subjects were taken.

Our school score

Is this a league table?

No. We rank schools within their local authority and their own phase, never nationally. A national table mostly measures who attends a school rather than what the school does — and the schools a family can realistically choose between are the ones near them, of the right phase. Ranking the whole country would produce a longer list that answers a question nobody asked.

How is the score worked out?

Every measure is read as a position among comparable schools and then weighted, so a school in the middle of the country scores 5. The full method — the weights, how both Ofsted frameworks are handled, and what the score cannot tell you — is set out on How the school score works.

Why does this school have no Ofsted grade?

Since November 2025 Ofsted has published a report card grading several areas separately and has stopped giving a single overall word. Schools inspected under the new framework therefore have no Outstanding/Good/Requires improvement judgement at all, and their grades are not directly comparable with older ones.

About this site

Is SchoolsGPT an official website?

No. SchoolsGPT is an independent, unofficial project. It isn't run by Ofsted, the Department for Education, any Local Authority, or any school. See our Terms of Service for the full disclaimer.

Where does the school data come from?

From public official sources: the DfE's Get Information About Schools (GIAS) service, Ofsted inspection outcomes, the DfE's Explore Education Statistics service (Progress 8, Attainment 8, KS2 results), and admissions policies published by Local Authorities. We don't survey schools or collect data privately.

How accurate is the data and the AI's answers?

We aim for accuracy, but data can be out of date or contain errors, and AI-generated answers and summaries can be wrong even when they sound confident. Always confirm anything important — deadlines, catchment areas, qualifying scores — directly with the school or Local Authority before relying on it.

What's the "AI summary" on school pages?

Some school pages show a machine-generated summary of that school's latest Ofsted inspection report, to make a long official document quicker to skim. It's clearly labelled as AI-generated, and links to the original report so you can read the source yourself.

Do I need to create an account?

No. There's no login. Your browser gets an anonymous ID so your chat history and saved schools persist between visits on the same device — see our Privacy Policy for details.

Is my data private?

We don't collect your name or email unless you give it to us via the Contact form. Chat messages are stored against an anonymous client ID to improve the service. Full details are in the Privacy Policy.

Can I delete my chat history?

Yes — contact us with your client ID (found in your browser's local storage under sgpt_client_id) and we'll delete conversations tied to it.

Is SchoolsGPT free?

Yes, the site is free to use.

I found an error on a school's page — how do I report it?

Please use the Contact page and include the school name and what looks wrong — we'll take a look.

Does SchoolsGPT only cover grammar schools?

No — the map, school search, and area reports cover every open state school in England, plus independent (fee-paying) schools across England, Wales and Scotland, and basic school listings (name, address, phase) in Wales and Scotland too. Ofsted-style ratings, performance rankings, and catchment/admissions data are England-specific for now — neither Wales nor Scotland publishes an equivalent bulk dataset (their inspectorates don't issue a single headline grade the way Ofsted does). Grammar-school admissions (11+, qualifying scores, selective catchments) remain a deeper specialty area of the site, including the dedicated Grammar Rankings page.