Subject · A level
Philosophy
Which schools in England make Philosophy a big part of the curriculum, and where results are strongest. Entries and grades from the 2025 performance tables.
What the data says
At A level, Philosophy was offered in 307 schools and colleges, with 3,243 entries — roughly 1% of A level students.
A level: schools and colleges where the largest share of students take Philosophy
Entries as a share of A level students (at least 30 A level students and 10 entries). England: 1% of A level students.
| # | School | Local authority | Entries | Cohort | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | William Howard School | Cumberland | 19 | 72 | 26% |
| 2 | Archway School | Gloucestershire | 13 | 62 | 21% |
| 3 | Charterhouse | Surrey | 40 | 191 | 21% |
| 4 | Christ's Hospital | West Sussex | 28 | 137 | 20% |
| 5 | Marylebone Academy | Westminster | 11 | 59 | 19% |
| 6 | Kingsbridge Academy | Devon | 20 | 114 | 18% |
| 7 | Wallington County Grammar School | Sutton | 31 | 180 | 17% |
| 8 | Wellington College | Bracknell Forest | 19 | 113 | 17% |
| 9 | Kendal College | Westmorland and Furness | 10 | 60 | 17% |
| 10 | Harris Westminster Sixth Form | Westminster | 50 | 306 | 16% |
| 11 | LVS Ascot | Bracknell Forest | 11 | 68 | 16% |
| 12 | The Hollyfield School and Sixth Form Centre | Kingston upon Thames | 15 | 96 | 16% |
| 13 | Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School | Blackburn with Darwen | 11 | 72 | 15% |
| 14 | The Skinners' School | Kent | 24 | 158 | 15% |
| 15 | Harris Academy Sutton | Sutton | 15 | 105 | 14% |
| 16 | Campion School | West Northamptonshire | 11 | 77 | 14% |
| 17 | Haberdashers' Boys' School | Hertfordshire | 22 | 157 | 14% |
| 18 | Wood Green School | Oxfordshire | 15 | 110 | 14% |
| 19 | Woodhouse Grove School | Leeds | 16 | 124 | 13% |
| 20 | The Harrodian School | Richmond upon Thames | 12 | 94 | 13% |
| 21 | Wollaston School | North Northamptonshire | 13 | 102 | 13% |
| 22 | Barton Court Grammar School | Kent | 17 | 135 | 13% |
| 23 | Haberdashers' Hatcham College | Lewisham | 17 | 136 | 13% |
| 24 | Merchant Taylors' School | Hertfordshire | 19 | 156 | 12% |
| 25 | James Allen's Girls' School | Southwark | 13 | 107 | 12% |
| 26 | Medina College | Isle of Wight | 23 | 191 | 12% |
| 27 | Highgate School | Haringey | 23 | 192 | 12% |
| 28 | St Paul's School | Richmond upon Thames | 25 | 217 | 12% |
| 29 | Weald of Kent Grammar School | Kent | 24 | 214 | 11% |
| 30 | Jane Austen College | Norfolk | 11 | 101 | 11% |
| 31 | Eastbourne College | East Sussex | 15 | 138 | 11% |
| 32 | Winchester College | Hampshire | 17 | 157 | 11% |
| 33 | Bentley Wood High School | Harrow | 12 | 112 | 11% |
| 34 | JMF6 Abingdon | Oxfordshire | 14 | 131 | 11% |
| 35 | Wallington High School for Girls | Sutton | 26 | 246 | 11% |
| 36 | Wellsway School | Bath and North East Somerset | 10 | 95 | 11% |
| 37 | Ricards Lodge High School | Merton | 12 | 116 | 10% |
| 38 | London Academy of Excellence | Newham | 24 | 232 | 10% |
| 39 | JFS | Brent | 23 | 230 | 10% |
| 40 | Royal Wootton Bassett Academy | Wiltshire | 13 | 131 | 10% |
What pupils learn in Philosophy, stage by stage
England has no national year-by-year syllabus: exam boards and schools set the order within each stage. These are the statutory blocks from the Department for Education, so a parent can see what a child meets in Years 7–9, what every GCSE candidate must cover, and what waits in the sixth form.
Years 7–9Key Stage 3
not offered as a separate subjectYears 10–11GCSE
not offered as a separate subjectYear 12A level, typically first year
18learning outcomes · content also examined at ASYear 13A level, second year
7learning outcomes · A level-only contentWhat A level Philosophy teaches · Years 12–13
25 learning outcomes from the Department for Education’s statutory subject content, grouped by topic. Each outcome belongs to one of twelve fields of knowledge used across startfrom.today: Arts & Humanities (19), Transversal Skills (6). Exam boards add detail on top of these; the outcomes themselves are the same whichever board a school uses.
Skills of philosophical analysis6
- analyse how subtle differences in philosophical concepts affect wider argumentsYear 12 · AS — conceptual analysis, philosophical concept
- present philosophical arguments clearly, correctly and preciselyYear 12 · AS — argument form, philosophical argument
- explain philosophical claims and their relation to other topic areasYear 12 · AS — cross-topic connection, philosophical claim
- explain how philosophical arguments develop in response to objectionsYear 12 · AS — argument development, philosophical objection
- compare forms of reasoning and kinds of knowledge across philosophical topicsYear 12 · AS — forms of reasoning, kinds of knowledge
- construct philosophical arguments and counter-arguments in response to questionsYear 12 · AS — argument, counter-argument
Epistemology9
- distinguish between acquaintance, ability and propositional knowledgeYear 12 · AS — ability knowledge, acquaintance knowledge, propositional knowledge
- evaluate the tripartite view of knowledge as justified true belief against Gettier casesYear 12 · AS — gettier problem, justified true belief
- explain direct realism and evaluate objections such as the argument from illusionYear 12 · AS — argument from illusion, direct realism
- explain indirect realism and evaluate the risk of scepticism about the external worldYear 12 · AS — external world scepticism, indirect realism
- explain idealism and evaluate objections such as solipsismYear 12 · AS — idealism, solipsism
- explain the nature of philosophical scepticism and its application to knowledge claimsYear 12 · AS — knowledge claim, philosophical scepticism
- evaluate sceptical arguments applied to a priori and a posteriori knowledge claimsYear 12 · AS — a posteriori knowledge, a priori knowledge
- explain empiricist and innatist accounts of the origin of knowledgeYear 12 · AS — empiricism, innatism, tabula rasa
- evaluate arguments for and against empiricist and innatist accounts of knowledgeYear 12 · AS — empiricism, innatism
Moral philosophy3
- compare meta-ethical positions on the origin and meaning of moral principlesYear 12 · AS — emotivism, meta-ethics, moral realism
- compare utilitarian, Kantian and Aristotelian approaches to normative ethicsYear 12 · AS — kantian ethics, utilitarianism, virtue ethics
- apply meta-ethical and normative ethical theories to resolve applied ethical issuesYear 12 · AS — applied ethics, moral theory
The metaphysics of God4
- explain the concepts of omnipotence, omniscience and omnibenevolenceYear 13 — omnibenevolence, omnipotence, omniscience
- evaluate teleological and cosmological arguments for the existence of GodYear 13 — cosmological argument, teleological argument
- evaluate the ontological argument for the existence of GodYear 13 — ontological argument
- evaluate empiricist challenges to the meaningfulness of religious languageYear 13 — religious language, verificationism
The metaphysics of mind3
- explain dualist theories of mind including property and substance dualismYear 13 — dualism, mind-body problem
- evaluate arguments against the reduction of the mental to the physicalYear 13 — reductionism, type identity theory
- evaluate functionalist and eliminativist accounts of the mindYear 13 — eliminative materialism, functionalism
Source: DfE GCE AS and A level philosophy subject content (2016), Open Government Licence v3.0. Outcomes are split into single actions and rewritten only where the original bundled several; wording otherwise follows the DfE text. Methodology.