"Sunday Times" Britain's Best Schools

This guide combines league tables of the best primary and secondary schools (both independent and state) in the UK with detailed profiles of over 1000 schools. Each year The Sunday Times publish two Parent Power supplements with Schoolsnet. The guide draws upon and expands the information available in these two supplements. The first part of the book covers the process of selecting a school, both in terms of a school's performance in league tables and how to undertake the selection process. It includes: / The Sunday Times ranking tables for the top state primary schools, the top preparatory schools, the top state secondary schools and the top independent schools. / More specialized tables based, for example, best GCSE results, best A-level results, best boarding schools, best single-sex schools, best for dyslexic children, highest and lowest fees, best Sixth-form colleges, best schools for added value, best schools for languages, for arts, for technology, etc. / Advice on how to choose, looking both at the state and independent sector, from factors such as geography, examination performance, day or boarding. / Explanation of the application process./ Explanation of educational terms and advice on good websites to visit. / Introduction to the basic structure of secondary schools. The second part contains an alphabetical listing of profiles of around 350 primary/preparatory schools, 650 state and independent secondary schools and 10 sixth form colleges. The profiles for each school will contain contact details, staff and pupil numbers, performance indicators (such as examination performance), entrance details, school policies (on uniform, for example), and a 250-word profile of the school, including comments from Inspection reports.

Schoolsnet (www.schoolsnet.com) is a very popular UK educational website, attracting 350,000 users a month. It was launched in 1999. From their surveys, over a quarter of the visitors are teachers, and over a third parents. The most popular part of the site in the schools guide (which contains profile data but not league table data). Many teachers also visit the site for lesson resources.