Academic Excellence

At St. Mary’s College, academic excellence comes as standard.

As one of the North West’s leading academic schools, our public examination results are consistently amongst the best in the area, both at GCSE and A Level.

St. Mary’s College has finished top of the GCSE results table for Sefton for the past three consecutive years. 

Our Attainment 8 score of 56.8 is higher than all other state and independent schools in Sefton. This key government measure awards schools a score based on how well pupils have performed in up to eight qualifications, which include English, Maths, three English Baccalaureate qualifications including Sciences, ICT, History, Geography and languages, plus three other additional approved qualifications.

We are delighted to have achieved the top Attainment 8 score in Sefton for three years running. This official top ranking reflects the breadth and quality of our curriculum and the excellent academic achievements of our pupils.

We are proud of the high percentage of passes our students achieve at the top grades, and also of the rigour and breadth of our curriculum.

Our overall A Level pass rate was 99% in 2022 with almost a third of students (31%) achieving three or more A*, A or B grades. 30% of all passes were at the highest A/A grades and almost two thirds (62%) were A, A or B grades.

More than half of all GCSE grades (53%) at the school were at the highest 9-7 grades in 2022 and 42% of candidates achieved seven or more passes at these top levels.

A quarter of students (25%) recorded ten or more 9-7 grades, with 17% going one better and achieving 11 or more top-level passes.

Overall, three quarters of candidates (75%) are celebrating ten or more GCSE passes, with many achieving 11 or even 12 GCSEs. This reflects the broad and balanced curriculum at St. Mary’s and the fact that we do not restrict the number of GCSE subjects students can take.

St. Mary’s has a great track record in improving students’ performance. We are regularly in the top 5% nationally for ‘value added’, a measure of quality reflecting the extent to which the educational experience enhances pupils’ knowledge, abilities, skills and performance at public examinations beyond predicted levels.

Our pupils regularly outperform their grade predictions, sometimes by as much as 3 grades, i.e. C predicted, A* achieved.

St. Mary’s College has been honoured as an Associate School by the Royal Society in recognition of the high quality of science teaching at St. Mary’s over many years and each year science pupils apply for and are successful in gaining Nuffield Bursaries.

The vast majority of our students achieve their first choice of university course and many gain entry into Russell Group universities.