State school receives two awards for excellence

Seven pupils at Heckmondwike Grammar School, in brown blazers and trousers and yellow and brown striped ties, stand on stairs leaning on the handrail. The background wall is yellow. Image source, Heckmondwike Grammar School
Image caption,

The school is named the best secondary in the North by The Times

  • Published

A state school in West Yorkshire has received two education awards.

Heckmondwike Grammar School has been named the best state secondary school in the north of England by The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2025.

It has also been given the award for state secondary school of the year for academic excellence in the north.

Headteacher Peter Roberts said the recognition was "beyond anything we could have hoped for and is a wonderful early Christmas present for the whole school community".

"We are delighted to once again be recognised in the Sunday Times and this year absolutely thrilled to have received two awards," he said.

"We knew our recent exam results at GCSE and A level were very strong indeed and so we were crossing our fingers we had been recognised."

Mr Roberts added the publication said the school was "head and shoulders above the other schools in the north of England", and he thanked staff and students for their "incredible work".

Image source, Heckmondwike Grammar School
Image caption,

Headteacher Peter Roberts thanked staff and students for their hard work

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, Fulford School in York has been named comprehensive school of the year in the north and Hill House School, Doncaster, crowned North Independent Secondary School of the Year.

Queen Ethelburga's College in York is the North's Independent Secondary School of the Year for Academic Excellence.

Carlton Junior and Infant School Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, wins North Primary School of the Year.

The school league tables are published in full in The Times., external

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