Southport Education Group

About Southport Education Group

Southport Education Group is a 16-99 state secondary in Sefton, and its headline sixth-form metrics sit well below the local authority average for similar schools. The school’s Progress 8 score for A-levels is -0.63, which is actually slightly worse than Sefton’s LA average Progress 8 of -0.59. That gap is small but consistent: the value-added score’s confidence interval runs from -0.71 to -0.55, meaning the school is reliably underperforming relative to other local sixth forms. Its progress banding is officially classed as “Well below average.” With 278 pupils in the 2023/24 cohort, it’s a sizeable sixth form, but the headline numbers suggest students here typically leave with lower grades than peers at schools like Formby High, which tops the local ranking with a score of 0.43. For parents comparing options, this is a clear signal that academic value-added is not the school’s strength.

Academically, the outcomes are modest. The average points per entry at A-level is 27.12, which translates to a grade of C-. The best three A-levels average out at 27.56 points, again a C-. Only 3.4% of entries achieved AAB or higher, a very low proportion for a sixth form of this size. There is no KS4 data available here, so it’s not possible to compare how pupils arrived versus how they left, but the value-added figure suggests that whatever their starting points, progress through sixth form is below what similar students achieve elsewhere in Sefton. The school does not appear in the top three local performers by ranking score, and with no outstanding-rated schools in the LA, the benchmark is simply the average. Southport Education Group sits below that average, and parents should weigh that carefully against other local sixth forms.

On the practical side, the school offers a broad range of facilities including a swimming pool, astro turf, art studios, a theatre, and a chapel, alongside standard science labs and ICT suites. Sports provision is strong, with rowing, rugby, cricket, and swimming among the options, and clubs include the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Model United Nations, and a gardening club. The school is mixed, non-religious, and serves ages 16 to 99, which is unusual and suggests it may cater to adult learners as well as traditional sixth-form students. There is no admissions or oversubscription data in this dataset, so it’s unclear how competitive entry is. This school might suit a student who values a wide extracurricular offer and doesn’t mind that academic outcomes are below the local average, but for families prioritising strong A-level progress, other Sefton sixth forms would be a more obvious choice.

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