Special school in Thornton Heath, Croydon
Bensham Manor School
Ecclesbourne Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey, CR7 7BN
Ofsted
Graded Outstanding at its last graded inspection, on 5 June 2024.
Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 2 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.
Exam results
Special schools serve pupils whose needs the standard measures were not designed to describe, so results are not shown or ranked here.
Pupils
- Pupils on roll
- 246
- Places
- 244
- How full
- Full — 246 pupils against 244 places
- Girls / boys
- 67 / 179
- Overall absence
- 8%
- Persistently absent
- 26%
England 5.8%
England 14.7% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions
- Free school meals, last 6 years
- 60%
- English as an additional language
- 23%
- With an EHC plan
- 100%
- On SEN support
- 0%
England 25.7%
England 18.7%
England 3.5%
England 15%
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
- In education, work or training
- 98%
- Stayed in education
- 98%
- Started an apprenticeship
- 0%
- Stayed at this school's sixth form
- 2%
- No sustained destination
- 2%
- Pupils in the cohort
- 55
England 91.4%
England 85.4%
England 3.5%
England 5.8%
A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.
The neighbourhood around the school
Census 2021 figures for Croydon 010B, the statistical neighbourhood the school sits in — roughly 1,500 residents. It describes the area, not the pupils, who may travel in from further away.
- Adults with a degree
- 36%
- Adults with no qualifications
- 20%
- Households owning their home
- 44%
- Households in social housing
- 8%
- Households with no car
- 46%
- Adults economically inactive
- 34%
England 33.8%
England 18.3%
England 62.7%
England 17%
England 21.9%
England 39.9%
School details
- Type
- Community special school
- Phase
- Special
- Ages
- Ages 11–19
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Nursery
- No
- Boarding
- Day school
- Headteacher
- Headteacher: Fiona Robinson
- Local authority
- Croydon
- Ward
- Bensham Manor
- Constituency
- Croydon West
- URN
- 101851
The unique reference number used in all official school data.
Nearest special schools
| School | Ofsted | Attainment 8 | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supreme Education APOther independent special school | No grade | — | 1.1 mi |
| Serenity School, Old Palace CroydonOther independent special school | No grade | — | 1.5 mi |
| The Write TimeOther independent special school | No grade | — | 1.7 mi |
| Priory SchoolCommunity special school | Good 2024 | — | 1.8 mi |
| Aspire LearningOther independent special school | No grade | — | 1.9 mi |
| Sherwood Foundation SchoolFoundation special school | Good 2024 | — | 2.3 mi |
| Rutherford SchoolOther independent special school | No grade | — | 2.6 mi |
| St Giles SchoolCommunity special school | Good 2023 | — | 2.7 mi |
Where these figures come from
- School details, address and pupil numbers — Get Information About Schools, the DfE register, as at 14 August 2026.
- Exam results — DfE performance tables, 2024/25, and 2023/24 for Progress 8.
- Free school meals, EAL and SEN — school census, 2024/25.
- Ofsted — Ofsted management information, latest inspections as at 30 June 2026.
- Neighbourhood figures — ONS Census 2021, lower layer super output area.
All published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.