King’s crowned North West Independent School of the Year

We are thrilled to announce that King’s has been named as The North West Independent School of the Year  in The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide. 

This highly prestigious accolade has been welcomed by Headmaster George Hartley, who thanked staff, students and parents for their dedication and support. 

He said: “I am naturally absolutely delighted that King’s has clinched this award which is not only a testament to our outstanding academic results but also our phenomenal co-curricular offering and unrelenting focus on the individual student in terms of their care and wellbeing.

“I am particularly pleased that our unique Learning to Learn programme has been name-checked as this has been fundamental to the school’s ethos of students working hard to reach their full potential but doing this sustainably and healthily; a really important preparation for success and happiness in their future lives.

“The students deserve great praise for their superb results last summer, despite having suffered the slings and arrows of the pandemic, though my biggest thanks must go to our entire staff body who all work tirelessly to support the students and get the very best out of them, whilst having some fun along the way.

“Thank you also to all our parents; we are blessed with a highly supportive parent body who value the importance of a holistic education and, as a day school, we do rely on them as joint-educationists at home.”

The Sunday Times commented: “In a crowded field of highly successful independent schools in the northwest, the coeducational King’s School in Chester has leapfrogged Manchester’s single-sex superstars, including Withington Girls’ School and Manchester High School for Girls to win the title of Northwest Independent School of the Year 2024. Boosting its rank by 17 places, King’s has broken into the top 100 UK independent schools at number 95, and is second in the region. George Hartley, the headmaster, attributes the school’s success — at GCSE and A-level, with 86 per cent of students securing a place at their first-choice university — to a “growth mindset”.

Helen Davies, editor of Parent Power, said: “The educational landscape continues to be challenging across both the state and independent sectors, and this is the first true assessment of post-pandemic exam results.

“We believe these rankings – and all the additional information on offer in Parent Power – provide parents with a more reliable guide to academic achievement in schools today.

“The guide showcases academic excellence but also celebrates schools who may not be right at the top but are rising, innovating and helping pupils flourish.”

The fully searchable national database of over 1,000 schools by name, local authority, town and postcode, is available online from Friday, December 1 and as a print supplement with The Sunday Times on Sunday, December 3. ​