The Sunday Times has analysed five years of Parent View data — surveys that parents fill out on Ofsted's website about their children's schools, with more than 500,000 doing so every year — to find some of the happiest in the country.

And Hitchin's three secondary schools are full of happy children.

Hitchin Boys School comes in top with 97% of parents that saying their child was happy at school.

Next is the Priory with 95% followed by Hitchin Girls school with 92%

The Sunday Times looked at Parent View analysis between 2020 and 2025 and chose the year in which the largest number of surveys had been completed.

This tended to be the year of their Ofsted inspection because schools encourage parents to complete Parent View to help inspectors before their visit.

The Sunday Times included schools with at least 500 places and with surveys completed by at least 100 parents in a single year. This left 1,934 state secondary schools in England and Wales in its analysis out of the total of over 4,000.

On average, parents were more likely to agree or strongly agree that their child was happy at grammars than at comprehensives (93 per cent compared to 82 per cent) and at boys' schools, rather than girls' schools or mixed.

With this in mind, many parents are looking beyond the exam results. A recent survey by Parentkind found 96 per cent of parents said the happiness of children at a school should be included in Ofsted inspection report cards.