Slough's schools are very good, and they are the strongest reason to live here. Almost every graded school is good or better. Primary maths results are strong. Grammar schools are within reach of most of the town. People who mock the town have usually never looked at its schools.
Around here there are 37 mainstream state primaries, and their pupils averaged a Key Stage 2 maths score of about 106. That is a strong figure for a town this size, and it covers the whole range of primaries in the area, not a few favourites. The names say something about the place. James Elliman Academy is named after the draper who started making horse liniment in Chandos Street in 1847 and became one of the town's great benefactors. Montem Academy borrows its name from Montem Mound, the old motte at Salt Hill. Slough named a primary after a liniment maker, and its pupils' maths results are a better advertisement than the liniment ever was.
In the area there are 18 mainstream state secondaries, and their pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score was about 54. The selective schools explain part of that. Herschel Grammar School carries the name of the astronomer William Herschel, whose name Upton Park also took in 1949. Langley Grammar School and Upton Court Grammar School complete a set that families in other towns would drive a long way for. Some of them do. Each spring, the grammar school offers show how many families across Slough have put an entrance test at the centre of their plans.
Across Slough as a whole, Ofsted has graded 17 of the 18 settings with a published grade good or better, which is almost all of them. Six are rated outstanding, none requires improvement and one is inadequate. Slough Borough Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, and the grammar schools add their own entrance tests, so buying the house next to Herschel Grammar School does not get a child through its gate. With grades this even across the borough, there are fewer bad schools to avoid than in most towns.
Schools are Slough's strongest suit by some distance, and the town's critics hardly ever mention them.