Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2023, has ranked King Edward VI High School for Girls the top West Midlands independent secondary school for academic results for the second year running.
The guide, which is available online today and as a printed supplement on Sunday (11th December), has considered schools’ public exam results from 2022.
It is the fourth time in six years that KEHS has been ranked first in a Sunday Times Parent Power listing for the West Midlands.
Second in the West Midlands is King Edward’s School, Birmingham (KES), the leading boys’ independent school with whom KEHS shares a 50-acre site in Edgbaston and collaborates closely.
Principal Kirsty von Malaisé said: “We were delighted with another set of outstanding results, which were testament to the impressive focus, resilience, and ambition of our students, the pastoral and academic support of our expert teachers, and the success of our online and hybrid learning during the Covid years.
“To mitigate the issues we all faced during this time, we amplified the sense of community, consolidating further our strong partnerships and service activities. For example, students were engaged in providing care packages for local primary schools, and trained as arts ambassadors for our successful TuneUp programme, working intensively with Birmingham schools on arts projects as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival’s Creative City programme. Internally, we reintroduced our system of Houses, with last year’s Year 13 providing our first set of enthusiastic House Captains, taking on additional leadership roles such as mentoring younger students in order to reinvigorate a strong community during the pandemic.
“All these activities, combined with our broad co-curricular programme which we also maintained during the last two years, develop confidence and perspective, so that our students head to an impressive range of university courses with so much more than just a set of outstanding academic achievements.”
KEHS and KES are part of the King Edward VI Foundation Birmingham, which has a mission to make Birmingham the best place to be educated in the UK, and also includes 11 state schools.
Helen Davies, editor of The Sunday Times Parent Power guide, said: “These have been a challenging few years for teachers, pupils and their parents, and the success of many in our league table is testament to the stamina and support shown by all concerned.
“League tables are not the only criteria a parent can use when choosing a school, but they are a good starting point. We want to celebrate excellence. We want to champion schools that are doing wonderful work.”
