page_title: North West England
section_title: Secondary education
hierarchical_section_title: North West England / Education / Secondary education
caption_attribution_description: English: Winstanley College. Upholland Grammar School became Winstanley College in 1981. I went to school here between 1976 and 1983 - happy days! The science buildings were (are) on the left. The low roofed building in the centre of the picture was the 6th form pavilion - THE place to hang out!
context_page_description: North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the five counties Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,052,000 in 2011. It is the third-most-populated region in the United Kingdom, after the South East and Greater London. The largest settlements are Manchester, Liverpool, Warrington, Blackpool, Chester, Stockport, Sale and Bolton.
context_section_description: Secondary schools are mostly comprehensive, but Trafford retains a wholly selective school system, and there are some other grammar schools in Lancashire, Wirral, Liverpool and Cumbria.
  There are around 345,000 at secondary school in the region, the third highest in England, after South East England and Greater London. This is around three times as much as there are in North East England. For school truancy the most number of persistent truants are in Manchester with a rate of 7.3%, followed by Knowsley with 6.9%, and Blackpool with 6.6%. The lowest truancy rate is in South Ribble with 2.4% followed by Ribble Valley with 2.9% (both in Lancashire).
  At A level in 2010, Trafford performed the best and, again like its results at GCSE, is one of the best areas in England. The lowest performing area is, again, Knowsley but followed by Rochdale. Knowsley has had some dreadful results at A-level; Halewood Academy, its last school sixth-form, closed in 2016; there is now no school-based A-level provision in Knowsley, it is provided by the Knowsley Community College. For traditional counties, Lancashire gets excellent results at A-level, being one of the best in England. Areas also performing above the England average, in order of results, are Blackpool, Warrington, Wigan, Cheshire West and Chester, Bury, Cumbria, Wirral, and Stockport. Blackpool performs not particularly well at GCSE, yet produces much better results at A level—even better than Cheshire West and Chester, and the third-best in the region.
  Top ten state schools in the North West (2015 A level results)
  Altrincham Grammar School for Girls (1223)
  Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
  The Blue Coat School, Liverpool
  Lancaster Girls' Grammar School
  The Bluecoat CofE School, Oldham
  Wirral Grammar School for Girls
  Wirral Grammar School for Boys
  Loreto Grammar School, Altrincham
  West Kirby Grammar School
  Clitheroe Royal Grammar School
  The areas that have school children most likely to attend university are Trafford and Cheshire, followed by Wirral, Sefton, Stockport and Bury. Four of these areas are or were part of Cheshire.
caption: Winstanley College
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