Applications to Islington secondary schools for 2025 are open – here are some of the borough's top secondary schools rated by pupil progress. 

Parents who have children born between September 1, 2013, and August 31, 2014, can now apply for a secondary school place for the next academic year.

It comes after the government said that single word ratings used by Ofsted to judge schools will be scrapped. 

Schools will instead now receive ratings based on the four existing subcategories, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

In light of the change, we have put together a list of secondary schools in Islington that saw strong pupil progress last year, according to the DfE.

This list is compiled from each school’s Progress 8 scores, which measure progress between the end of KS2 (Year 6) and KS4 (Year 11) in eight subjects, and compares it to the nationwide average.

These subjects include English, maths, sciences, computer science, history, geography, and languages.

A score above zero indicates that pupils made more progress, on average, than pupils across England who got similar results at the end of Key Stage 2.

Here are the five schools in Islington found to have above average progress 8 scores.

  • Highbury Fields School – 0.82 (well above average)
  • Central Foundation Boys’ School – 0.55 (well above average)
  • St Aloysius RC College – 0.16 (average)
  • St Mary Magdalene Academy – 0.08 (average)
  • Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Schol – 0.07 (average)