Best Secondary schools in County Durham

1. Headline Ofsted grade orders: Outstanding (1), then Good (2), then RI (3), then Inadequate (4).
2. More recent graded inspection dates rank higher.
3. Where available, we use the Quality of education sub-judgement as a tie-breaker.
4. We may consider contextual signals (e.g., %FSM, roll size) to break remaining ties.

Ungraded visits don’t replace the last graded judgement.

• Outstanding (1) — highest judgement across key areas.
• Good (2) — consistently meets standards.
• Requires improvement (3) — not yet good; clear areas to improve.
• Inadequate (4) — significant weaknesses found.