GSAL earn title in top list

The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) has been named the Sunday Times North Independent Secondary School of the Decade.

The accolade comes as the newspaper published its Parent Power Schools Guide last weekend, which identifies the 2,000 highest achieving schools in the UK, ranked on their most recently published examination results. Parent Power is widely acknowledged as the most authoritative survey of the country’s best schools.

GSAL, many of whose pupils come from the Wetherby area, was the Sunday Times North Independent Secondary School of the Year in 2019 and was pitched against nine other previous winners in this category for the school of the decade title.

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Parent Power editor, Alastair McCall, commended GSAL for its outstanding achievements and consistent excellence since its creation in 2008 from a merger between Leeds Grammar School and Leeds Girls’ High School.

He said: “When two outstanding and long-established schools merge, the results cannot always be guaranteed, but The Grammar School at Leeds shows what can be done when everything comes together perfectly.

“The boys and girls achieve exceptionally well and around 80 per cent of A-level grades earn A*, A and B grades every year.”

Special mention was reserved for the successful creation of the new GSAL Primary School with the relocation of Rose Court pre-prep school from Headingley, to join the rest of the school at Alwoodley Gates, this year.

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Principal Sue Woodroofe said: “This is an absolutely wonderful accolade for the staff, pupils and parents over these last 10 years and before.

“The award is not founded on one moment of brilliance, or any one achievement, rather it is a culmination of years of effort and ambition. As such, it is not just a team effort, it represents a long list of teams over the years who should all feel proud of what GSAL has become.”

Of the last decade, Mrs Woodroofe said: “It has been a “period of significant achievement as well as a time of real reflection and review to ensure that we continue to grow and to develop, always with the aim of being the very best that we can be.”

Key achievements for the school in the last decade include - over 1,000 students have gone to Russell group universities and over 100 students to Oxbridge, more than £500,000 has been raised for charity.

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