Liverpool has both primary and secondary schools covered on this page. Among the older single-grade inspections, the primary schools come out noticeably stronger than the secondary ones here — worth bearing in mind if you're planning across both phases.
Choose your area of Liverpool
Liverpool is a big place, so schools near one neighbourhood may be a long way from another. Pick your area for a more local list of schools and how to get to them.
School admissions are run by the local authority where you live; the school may be in a different local authority (that is, it goes by your address rather than the school's). This area covers more than one local authority — mainly Liverpool and Sefton, Knowsley.
Apply through the council for the area where you live. In some parts of England there are two councils — a smaller district or borough council and a larger county council. Where that is the case, it is the county council that handles school admissions. If you are not sure which applies to you, use the “find your local authority” link above. Deadlines and admission rules vary by council, so always check its official pages. See also our guide to school admissions.
Primary schools in Liverpool
In and around Liverpool there were 278 primary schools with an Ofsted inspection on record, together teaching roughly 85,007 pupils. 178 were last judged under Ofsted's older single-grade system, while 41 have already moved to the newer report card, so you'll see a mix of both on this page. A further 42 have a recent inspection that graded individual areas without giving an overall grade.
Among the schools graded the older way, 94% were judged Good or Outstanding, with 16 rated Outstanding. 10 were rated Requires improvement or Inadequate at their last visit.
By our Good School Finder score, The Beacon Church of England Primary School tops the primary list here, followed by Malvern Primary School. The score is a rough shortlisting guide built from each school’s latest inspection, not an official Ofsted judgement, so open any school that interests you and read its full report.
235 of these schools were inspected in the last five years. 11 were last inspected before 2016, so their published grade may not reflect the school today — always check the current Ofsted report before deciding.
For families considering special educational needs (SEN) support, primary schools here have on average about 18.6% of pupils on SEN support and about 5% with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan (national averages are roughly 13% and 4-5% respectively). This indicates how common SEN provision is locally — context only, not a measure of quality; always contact a school's SENCo to discuss your child's needs.
If you're after a particular kind of school, Liverpool has 140 faith schools among its primary schools. Admission rules for these differ — check each school's criteria with the school and your local authority.
On intake, about 31.8% of pupils at these primary schools are eligible for free school meals on average, close to the national average of roughly a quarter. This is background context to read results fairly — schools serving more disadvantage often add a lot of value that raw results understate — not a measure of quality, and not part of our score.
Primary schools here range from about 20 to 839 pupils (typically around 272), so there's a mix of smaller and larger settings to weigh up.
Based on the MHCLG Index of Multiple Deprivation, Liverpool is more deprived than the national average. Note this data relates to the wider neighbourhood, not the school. It is provided as context but is not a measure of the schools’ quality.
Sort by:
Primary schools in Liverpool, ranked by the Good School Finder score.
#
School
Pupils
Class size
Postcode
Latest Ofsted
1
The Beacon Church of England Primary School
474
26.9
L5 3QG
Areas graded, lowest: OutstandingOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
2
Malvern Primary School
486
29.9
L14 6XA
Areas graded, lowest: OutstandingOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
3
Westhead Lathom St James' Church of England Primary School
105
23.5
L40 6HL
Areas graded, lowest: OutstandingOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
4
St John's Catholic Primary School
524
31.2
L4 1UN
Areas graded, lowest: OutstandingOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
5
Eccleston Lane Ends Primary School
244
35
L34 2QN
Areas graded, lowest: OutstandingOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
6
St Robert Bellarmine Catholic Primary School
236
29.4
L20 6ED
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
7
St Thomas Church of England Primary School, Lydiate
236
29.5
L31 0BP
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
8
Freshfield Primary School
272
25.1
L37 3JT
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
9
Aughton Christ Church Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School
203
28.8
L39 5AS
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
10
Trinity St Peter's CofE Primary School
238
29.6
L37 7EJ
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
11
Whiston Willis Primary Academy
419
26.5
L35 2XY
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
12
Emmaus Church of England and Catholic Primary School
In and around Liverpool there were 62 secondary schools with an Ofsted inspection on record, together teaching roughly 60,681 pupils. 37 were last judged under Ofsted's older single-grade system, while 12 have already moved to the newer report card, so you'll see a mix of both on this page. A further 10 have a recent inspection that graded individual areas without giving an overall grade.
Archbishop Blanch CofE High School comes out highest among Liverpool's secondary schools on our score, followed by Archbishop Blanch CofE High School. The score is a rough shortlisting guide built from each school’s latest inspection, not an official Ofsted judgement, so open any school that interests you and read its full report.
If you're after a particular kind of school, Liverpool has 1 selective (grammar) school, 24 faith schools, 7 girls' schools and 4 boys' schools among its secondary schools. Admission rules for these differ — check each school's criteria with the school and your local authority.
Looking at the older single-grade inspections, 68% were judged Good or Outstanding, with 3 rated Outstanding. 12 were rated Requires improvement or Inadequate at their last visit.
For families considering special educational needs (SEN) support, secondary schools here have on average about 18.8% of pupils on SEN support and about 4.3% with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan (national averages are roughly 13% and 4-5% respectively). This indicates how common SEN provision is locally — context only, not a measure of quality; always contact a school's SENCo to discuss your child's needs.
55 of these schools were inspected in the last five years.
On intake, about 36% of pupils at these secondary schools are eligible for free school meals on average, higher than the national average of roughly a quarter. This is background context to read results fairly — schools serving more disadvantage often add a lot of value that raw results understate — not a measure of quality, and not part of our score.
Secondary schools here range from about 179 to 1,692 pupils (typically around 1,018), so there's a mix of smaller and larger settings to weigh up.
Based on the MHCLG Index of Multiple Deprivation, Liverpool is more deprived than the national average. Note this data relates to the wider neighbourhood, not the school. It is provided as context but is not a measure of the schools’ quality.
Sort by:
Secondary schools in Liverpool, ranked by the Good School Finder score.
#
School
Pupils
Class size
Postcode
Latest Ofsted
1
Archbishop Blanch CofE High School
1,029
—
L7 6HQ
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
2
Archbishop Blanch CofE High School
1,179
21.8
L7 6HQ
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
3
Liverpool College
1,685
22.6
L18 8BG
OutstandingInspected under the pre-2024 framework
4
The Belvedere Academy
1,182
20.5
L8 3TF
Areas graded, lowest: GoodOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
5
Maharishi Free School
229
19.1
L40 6JJ
Areas graded, lowest: GoodOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
6
Ormskirk School
1,169
22
L39 2AT
Areas graded, lowest: GoodOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
7
St Edward's College
1,150
24.4
L12 1LF
Areas graded, lowest: GoodOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
8
St Bede's Catholic High School
709
24.5
L39 4TA
Areas graded, lowest: GoodOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
9
Holly Lodge Girls' College
1,016
20.2
L12 7LE
Areas graded, lowest: GoodOfsted inspection (individual areas graded)
Ofsted changed how schools are graded in 2024. Older inspections gave one overall grade — Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate. Newer inspections give a “report card” that grades several areas separately, with no single overall grade. The two systems measure different things, so an old grade and a new report card can’t be compared directly. We show whichever one a school has, and label which system it came from.
To let you see a whole town at a glance, we turn each school’s latest inspection into a single Good School Finder score out of 100. For older grades, Outstanding scores highest, then Good, then Requires improvement, then Inadequate. For newer report cards, we average the area grades onto the same 0–100 scale. It’s a rough guide to help you build a shortlist — not an official Ofsted judgement — so always open a school and read its full inspection before deciding. There’s more on how the score works on the About page.
How the lists are ordered
Schools are listed by their Good School Finder score, best first. Quite often several schools tie — for example, a town might have five Outstanding primaries. When that happens we don’t put them in a random order; we use the same simple rules every time, so the list looks the same each time you visit:
The Good School Finder score comes first — a higher score is listed higher.
If two schools have the same score, the one whose safeguarding was judged effective is listed above one where it was not.
If they still tie, the school inspected more recently comes first, because its grade is more likely to reflect the school as it is today.
If everything above is equal, we simply list them in alphabetical order by name.
So if two schools are both Outstanding, the one with effective safeguarding and a more recent inspection appears higher — never just by chance.