Companion Results · explained
A fairer way to judge a school’s results
League tables rank schools by their raw exam results. But raw results say as much about which children a school teaches as about how well it teaches them. Companion Results compare each school with what you’d expect from its own pupils – so a school gets credit for what it adds, not for its intake.
In one sentence
“Companion Results compare each school’s official exam results with what schools in England typically achieve with a similar mix of pupils, so they reward good teaching rather than an advantaged intake.”
Free to quote. Please credit The School Companion.
Why raw results can mislead
Two schools both get an Attainment 8 score of 50 (Attainment 8 is the main GCSE measure – roughly a pupil’s average grade across eight subjects, times ten). A league table puts them level. But they teach very different children:
Hillside School
Few pupils from disadvantaged homes, few with special educational needs
6 points below what you’d expect
Riverside School
Many pupils from disadvantaged homes, more with special educational needs
8 points above what you’d expect
Made-up schools, to show the idea. Same raw score – but Riverside is doing far more with the children it has.
How we work it out
- 1
Start with the official results
We use the government’s own published results for every mainstream state school in England: Attainment 8 for secondary schools (GCSEs), and the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths for primary schools (Year 6 SATs).
- 2
Look at who the school teaches
From the same official data we take three things about each year group that are outside the school’s control: the share of pupils who are disadvantaged (eligible for free school meals in the last six years, or in care), who have special educational needs, and who speak English as an additional language.
- 3
Work out what you’d expect
Across thousands of schools, we measure how results usually rise and fall with that mix of pupils – a national “line of best fit”. That gives every school an expected result: what a typical school in England achieves with pupils like its own.
- 4
Compare actual with expected
The difference is the school’s Companion Result. Small differences are normal year-to-year variation, so we group schools into five bands, from “well below” to “well above” what you’d expect, rather than ranking them to a decimal point.
This year’s figures
Secondary schools · GCSEs 2024/25
- 3,053 schools in England used to work out what to expect
- Pupil mix alone accounts for about 38% of the differences in results between schools – that much of a raw league table reflects intake, before teaching comes into it
- For every 10 more disadvantaged pupils in every 100, Attainment 8 is about 3.3 points lower
How 2,979 schools compare with what you’d expect
- Well above 15%
- Above 17%
- As expected 33%
- Below 22%
- Well below 13%
Primary schools · Year 6 SATs 2024/25
- 14,315 schools in England used to work out what to expect
- Pupil mix alone accounts for about 18% of the differences in results between schools – that much of a raw league table reflects intake, before teaching comes into it
- For every 10 more disadvantaged pupils in every 100, the share meeting the expected standard is about 2.4 percentage points lower
How 13,485 schools compare with what you’d expect
- Well above 16%
- Above 18%
- As expected 32%
- Below 19%
- Well below 15%
What the five bands mean
- Well above what you’d expect
- Results clearly higher than schools with similar pupils – by more than the typical gap between schools.
- Above what you’d expect
- Higher than schools with similar pupils, by more than normal variation.
- About what you’d expect
- In line with schools with similar pupils. This is the most common result, and it’s not a bad one.
- Below what you’d expect
- Lower than schools with similar pupils, by more than normal variation.
- Well below what you’d expect
- Results clearly lower than schools with similar pupils.
For primary schools, year groups are small – in a class of 30, one child moves the percentage by more than 3 points – so we use the three-year average and a small school needs a bigger gap before we call it above or below.
Why it’s fairer than league tables
- It credits teaching, not intake. A school can’t choose how many of its pupils are disadvantaged or have SEN. Companion Results take that out of the comparison.
- It fills a gap. The government’s own “value added” measure for secondary schools, Progress 8, isn’t available for 2025 or 2026 GCSE results, because those pupils didn’t sit Year 6 SATs during the pandemic.
- It’s honest about uncertainty. Bands instead of a 1st-to-500th ranking, and extra allowance for small schools, so chance doesn’t masquerade as quality.
- It’s open. Built only from official, published government data, with the method set out on this page.
What it doesn’t do
- It’s one measure of results, not a verdict on the whole school. Read it alongside Ofsted, parents’ reviews and a visit.
- It doesn’t know about everything outside a school’s control – such as pupils’ starting points when they joined – only the three factors above.
- We deliberately don’t adjust for absence or exclusions (partly down to the school itself), Ofsted grades or funding.
- Not scored: grammar (selective) schools, special and independent schools, studio schools and UTCs, and very small year groups.
For journalists
Describing it
“[School] achieved results well above what would be expected given its pupils, according to Companion Results from The School Companion, which compare schools’ official exam results with those of schools with a similar mix of pupils.”
Please avoid
“Best school in [area]” or a numbered ranking. Companion Results place schools in bands; schools in the same band shouldn’t be ranked against each other.
Sources
- Department for Education performance data: Key Stage 4 (GCSE) and Key Stage 2 (SATs) results, with the pupil characteristics published alongside them.
- All mainstream state schools in England are included in the national comparison, not just those in one area.
Look up any school
Context Comparator → shows every school’s result on a chart, by area, for secondary and primary schools.
Questions about the figures? Get in touch.
Questions
Does “below what you’d expect” mean it’s a bad school?
No. It means its exam results were lower than schools with similar pupils in that year. Schools can be strong in many ways exam results don’t capture. It’s a good question to ask the school about.
Isn’t this just making excuses for disadvantaged schools?
The opposite: it means a school serving a disadvantaged community that does brilliantly gets recognised for it, and a school with an advantaged intake that coasts doesn’t hide behind high raw scores. Both are useful for parents to know.
Why only three factors?
They’re the factors the government publishes for every school, they’re outside the school’s control, and together they account for a real share of the difference in results between schools – more for secondary schools than primary (see this year’s figures above). We leave out things a school can influence, such as absence, so we don’t excuse problems the school could tackle.
How often is it updated?
Once a year, when the government publishes final results. The year is shown wherever a Companion Result appears.
Can I still see the raw results?
Yes. Every school page shows the raw results too, and the Area Summary’s “Top 5 for results” has a Raw results tab next to the Companion Results.