Exam Performance

Winstanley’s mission is to achieve academic excellence in a supportive and inspiring learning community. In September 2025, the Sunday Times ranking of Sixth Form Colleges places Winstanley as the 6th highest performing College in the country for % of A-levels A*-B^.

Winstanley is recognised as an exceptional provider by SSAT and the Prince’s Teaching Institute and in 2025 was awarded the CyberFirst Gold Award, officially recognising the College as one of the UK's leading institutions for cyber education,  whilst also proudly being accredited with the prestigious STEM Assured status by the IKE Institute and its STEM Foundation. The welfare of our students and staff is of utmost importance: We were nominated for the Mental Health and Wellbeing Award at the Educate North awards 2025, having recently been re-accredited with the AcSEED Award for our work in supporting students’ mental health and wellbeing. In 2025 we were runners up at the Sixth Form Colleges Association for the Careers and Employability Award, building on the success of recieving the Matrix Standard for our IAG Careers and Guidance service to students.

In  September 2025, the College achieved the Silver Investors in Diversity Award in recognition for the supportive and nurturing environemnt we have built whilst also being awarded the national ‘Valued Worker Scheme’ in 2024, by trades unions after meeting the welfare of staff criteria. We are proud of our inclusive and diverse College community which creates a safe and supporting learning environment for our students.  

The College grade profiles, and national profiles are shown below.

Alongside this data our vocational courses significantly out-perform national statistics. In single vocational courses 70.4% achieved D*-D and in double vocational courses 94.2% achieved D**-DD.

Students at Winstanley College achieve excellent grades and make exceptional progress during their time with us. Value Added is arguably the most important measure as this compares the GCSE scores with A-level scores and measures the distance travelled during a student’s time at Winstanley College. On this measure, we are placed as one of the highest Sixth Form College's nationally.

In November 2024 the College was awarded the 'Most Inspirational Sixth Form & College' at the Educate North West Awards and has once again been nominated in the same category for 2025!!!

It isn't just our results that helped us achieve this award. Its the values the College lives by to support and develop our students to be the best they can be. We offer a range of additional support such as our pastoral programme, delivered by our Personal Tutors, Learning Support in the library, Careers support and Wellbeing support.  The Extended Curriculum is designed to stretch and challenge our most able students and help them achieve their aspirations and we offer of an extensive enrichment programme (ESI) to all students which includes trips, societies, guest speakers, sports teams and much more. These opportunities help our students to enhance their personal development and progress to the most prestigious destinations.

NATIONAL PERFORMANCE TABLE

The Department for Education publishes performance information relating to school and College examination results which you can use to compare Winstanley against other local Colleges. 

You can compare schools and Colleges across England and the local area via the Department for Education website