Better than the town's own opinion of itself. Nearly every graded school locally is good or better. Two are rated outstanding. Nothing is rated inadequate. The one thing a seaside town with modest incomes is supposed to be bad at turns out to be the thing it quietly does well.
Start with the primaries. There are 16 mainstream state primaries in the area, and their Key Stage 2 maths results average a scaled score of about 105. That sits above the expected standard, which for a place with the kind of housing stock and income profile Paignton has is not the result the stereotype predicts. Oldway Primary School and Curledge Street Academy are among the schools inside the town itself, with Collaton St Mary Church of England Primary School and Marldon Church of England Primary School serving the outer edges towards Totnes and the countryside. Roselands, Eden Park, Kings Ash and White Rock fill in the rest of the map, and the density is such that most addresses have more than one realistic option within a walk.
Secondary is where the choice gets more consequential. Six mainstream state secondaries serve the area, and their pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score averages about 53. Paignton Academy is the town's own comprehensive and takes the largest share of local children. Churston Ferrers Grammar School Academy sits along the coast towards Brixham and is selective, which means it is an option rather than a destination. The Torquay grammars, boys' and girls', are in range for families willing to travel and willing to sit the test. That mix, one large comprehensive plus selective schools reachable by bus, is the single most important thing to understand about secondary education here, because it shapes where families choose to buy.
On inspection grades, Ofsted has published overall effectiveness for 22 settings across the Torbay local authority, of which 20 are good or better. Two are outstanding, two require improvement, and none is rated inadequate. That is roughly nine in ten graded good or better, and it covers the whole authority rather than Paignton alone, so a family comparing individual schools should look up the specific one rather than assume the average applies to their nearest gate. A further 15 settings hold no published grade yet, which means not inspected rather than not good.
The usual warning applies and it is not boilerplate. Naming a school here is not the same as getting into it. Admission runs on published criteria and distance measurements that change year to year as birth cohorts move around, and the selective schools run on an entrance test regardless of where you live. Buyers who assume proximity equals a place tend to find out in the spring, which is late in the process to be finding anything out. Check the current admissions arrangements for the specific school before the offer on the house, not after.
Schools are the strongest card Paignton holds, and the one nobody mentions when they talk about the town.