A SCHOOL in Wirral has been named as one of the best in the Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2024.

West Kirby Grammar School has been rated as the top state secondary school in the Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2024 for Wirral and Chester & Cheshire West.

The UK’s highest-achieving secondary schools are ranked by the first true set of post-pandemic examination results in the 31st edition of The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide. The guide is widely acknowledged as the most authoritative survey of the country’s top schools.

The national database of over 1,000 schools by name, local authority, town and postcode, available online and was printed in a supplement with The Sunday Times on Sunday, December 3.

West Kirby Grammar School headteacher, Simeon Clarke, told the Globe: “We are delighted to have again been recognised as the best State Secondary in both Wirral and Cheshire West & Chester in this year's Sunday Times Parent Power Rankings. This is a fantastic achievement for our school community, demonstrating the exceptional levels of academic performance that continue to be achieved at West Kirby Grammar School owing to the hard-work, perseverance and resilience of students and staff alike. 

“It is always pleasing for our academic excellence to be rewarded, but even more so that the well-rounded and holistic education provided to our students is recognised in the Parent Power Rankings where features of our school such as sporting excellence, our adoption of the High Performance Learning philosophy and our exceptional pastoral care are also noted.”

As well as an assessment of all academic results on a school-by-school basis, Parent Power enables parents to compare the performance of a given school with other schools in the same town, local authority or nationally. There are also live links to school websites and schools’ most recent inspection reports.

Helen Davies, Editor of Parent Power, said: “The educational landscape continues to be challenging across both the state and independent sectors, and this is the first true assessment of post-pandemic exam results. We believe these rankings – and all the additional information on offer in Parent Power – provide parents with a more reliable guide to academic achievement in schools today.

“The guide showcases academic excellence but also celebrates schools who may not be right at the top but are rising, innovating and helping pupils flourish. Being a teenager is hard enough, and the past few years since Covid have made life even harder. It is heartening to highlight the achievements of so many students and schools across the UK.

“This year Parent Power includes details on extracurricular clubs, wellbeing initiatives and school lunch menus – chicken katsu seems to be the dish of the day.”