League tables - which ones? Using to choose Year 12-13 or Sixth form

[cupoftea2022]

I know I’m being thick here but there seems to be so much out there I am not sure that I am looking at the right things.

My son is looking at moving school for sixth form – it may be to a state or independent school or sixth form college and we are trying to look at league tables and results. The government site is quite cronky and complicated and I am a bit confused about other sites. Is it the Times league tables I should look at? Some league tables appear to have some of the schools missing from them so I am a bit confused so thought I would ask the experts on here instead.

Thank you.

I don't know about league tables but at this age it will be even more about the quality of students.
A school/college with minimum requirements of e.g. best 8 average grade 7, is almost by definition going to end up with better results than one that has entry of e.g. 5 passes at grade 5, grade 6 in any subject picked for A level.

Many newspaper league tables are reliant on schools themselves submitting the data. Unsurprisingly, schools with less than stellar results don't submit theirs. Also, schools that object to being ranked alongside schools achieving similar headline figures but with many more times the resources don't submit theirs either.
The only tool you can use objectively is the DfE Performance Tables. Essentially it's progress you should be interested in. (Much easier for a school to post 90% at A or A* results if they only let those who have a 7 and above at GCSE take the subject!)