SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Mirfield, Kirklees

Castle Hall Academy

Richard Thorpe Avenue, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, WF14 9PH

Ofsted Good · 2023
School website 01924520500
Ofsted Good February 2023
Attainment 8 46.9 around the middle nationally
Chance of a place 81% of first choices offered
Local deprivation 10/10 less deprived

Ofsted

Goodas at 7 February 2023

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 7 February 2023.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 3 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.

Read the Ofsted report

Current published outcome
Good
Last overall grade in this dataset
Good
Days since inspection
1,333 days
Framework era
Historic overall-grade framework (ended September 2024)

These four fields describe the latest published inspection on this record. The dataset does not keep a previous inspection row, so a school inspected under the current framework will usually have no overall grade to show as “prior”.

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

46.9 England 47

The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.

Grade 5+ in English & maths

39% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

56% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

30% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is around the middle of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is most disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the top quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.15confidence interval -0.09 to 0.39

Taking that range into account, progress was not statistically different from the national average. DfE bands this as average.

Progress 8 measures how far pupils moved between the end of primary and their GCSEs, which makes it far fairer than raw attainment. It is shown for 2023/24 because it could not be calculated for 2024/25: that year group would have sat their key stage 2 tests in summer 2020, when the tests were cancelled, so there is no starting point to measure from. Every school in England is affected, not just this one.

Getting a place 2026/27 entry

Slightly oversubscribed. Of the 204 families who named this school as their first choice, 81% were offered a place.

Places offered
170

for entry into Year 7

Named it first choice
204
First choices per place
1.20

England average 1.00

First choices offered a place
81%

England 88.5%

First preferences per place are up 77% on three years ago.

These are offers made on national offer day for 2026/27 entry, from the local authority's co-ordinated admissions round. They exclude later movement — waiting lists, appeals and in-year admissions — so a school shown as oversubscribed may still have places by September.

Oversubscription measures popularity, not quality, and the two are not the same thing: a school can be heavily oversubscribed because of its intake, its faith designation or simply because the nearest alternative is further away. We do not publish catchment maps, because catchments are not published: each admissions authority applies its own criteria afresh every year, and the distance that got a child in last year is not a boundary. Read the school's own admissions arrangements for the rules that will actually apply.

Pupils

Pupils on roll
863
Places
870
How full
Nearly full — 863 of 870 places taken
Girls / boys
390 / 473
Overall absence
9%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
29%

secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions

Free school meals, last 6 years
37%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
38%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
3%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
18%

England 15%

School funding 2025-26 financial year

Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release.

Evidence found
Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release; this is not represented as £0.
Source coverage
DfE mainstream-school allocations for running costs for pupils aged 5-16, importer snapshot 23 August 2026.
What this means
The official mainstream allocation release does not provide a publishable row for this establishment.
What this does not mean
The school received no public funding or has no budget; other establishment types and funding streams use different publications.

Allocation is not expenditure. DfE says this release combines the schools block with several other revenue grants and excludes capital spending. Funding is shown for context and is never used in School Facts ordering, peer groups or quality claims. Source, licence and coverage.

Roads and getting there

Road casualties within 500m

Child pedestrian casualties
4

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
10

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
3
Busiest road nearby
C

4,757 vehicles a day (2009)

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
7

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Mirfield Rail Station

1 km away — railway station

Traffic volume is the context the collision count needs: a school beside a major road will record more collisions than one on a quiet street without being any less well run.

Every collision reported to the police within 500m of the school over the five years to 2024, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe — counts rise with traffic and with how built up an area is, and a rural school on a fast road may have fewer collisions but a worse one. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position.

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
86%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
83%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
23%
No sustained destination
8%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
132

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 area around the school

10/10 Deprivation decile

Among the least deprived fifth of England.

9/10 Child poverty decile

Among the least deprived fifth of England for children in low-income families.

Indices of Deprivation 2019, for the small area the school stands in. 1 means the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. The second measure counts only children living in low-income families, which is the one that describes the intake a school is likely to draw on.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£237,000

postcode sector WF14 9 · 277 sales

Typical range
£175,000 to £314,250

middle half of sales

Detached
£360,000
Semi-detached
£237,000
Terraced
£175,000
Flat
£140,000

Homes around this school are close to the England average.

Every residential sale registered in this postcode sector since January 2024, from HM Land Registry. A sector covers roughly 2,500 addresses. England's median over the same period was £293,000.

Who lives there

Adults with a degree
35%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
15%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
14%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
16%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
46%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
88%

England 62.7%

Social housing
2%

England 17%

Privately rented
9%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
32%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
21%

England 22.5%

No car
9%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for Kirklees 026B and the wider neighbourhood around it. These figures describe the area, not the pupils — children may travel in from much further away, and for selective, faith and independent schools they usually do.

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–16
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
No
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: Paul Brook
Opened as this establishment
1 September 2018
Register status
Open
Local authority
Kirklees
Ward
Mirfield
Constituency
Spen Valley
URN
146367

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Official DfE record
Open the register entry

The source record for this establishment and URN.

The URN identifies this registered establishment. If a school converts or is replaced, DfE may issue a new URN; this page does not stitch different establishments together by a similar name.

Admissions history

The official school-level admissions releases contain up to 13 national-offer-day observations, from 2014/15 to 2026/27. The chart shows first choices per place; the table keeps the underlying counts.

Year 7

1.30 2019/20: 0.33 first choices per place2020/21: 0.31 first choices per place2021/22: 0.52 first choices per place2022/23: 0.70 first choices per place2023/24: 0.68 first choices per place2024/25: 1.08 first choices per place2025/26: 1.19 first choices per place2026/27: 1.20 first choices per place20192021202320252026
All 8 annual observations
Entry yearPlacesFirst choicesPer placeFirst choices offered
2019/20 167 55 0.33 100%
2020/21 188 59 0.31 100%
2021/22 130 68 0.52 100%
2022/23 173 121 0.70 100%
2023/24 174 118 0.68 100%
2024/25 176 190 1.08 91%
2025/26 174 207 1.19 81%
2026/27 170 204 1.20 81%

These are annual observations, not forecasts. They exclude waiting lists, appeals and in-year admissions. Each series follows this exact URN only, so academy conversions and missing releases remain visible as gaps rather than being joined by name.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8DistanceCompare
The Mirfield Free GrammarAcademy converter No overall grade 47.8 -0.40-0.59 to -0.21 0.7 mi
Spen Valley High SchoolFoundation school Good 2022 35.7 -0.77-0.98 to -0.57 1.8 mi
Westborough High SchoolFoundation school Good 2022 42.6 0.17-0.03 to 0.38 · not a win 1.9 mi
Rida Boys High SchoolOther independent school No overall grade — — 1.9 mi
St John Fisher Catholic Voluntary AcademyAcademy converter No overall grade 34.8 -0.99-1.20 to -0.78 2.1 mi
Heckmondwike Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 80.2 1.000.80 to 1.19 2.1 mi
Brian Jackson CollegeOther independent school No overall grade — — 2.1 mi
The Branch Christian SchoolOther independent school No overall grade — — 2.3 mi

Schools like this

The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one — same phase and sector, and as near as the data allows on size, disadvantage, SEN, English as an additional language and the deprivation of the surrounding area. These are the schools it can fairly be judged against.

This school 46.9
Median of its 12 closest peers 41.4
Kirklees average 43.9
England average 47

Attainment 8 score. This school is ahead of the schools that teach a comparable intake.

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
Sir William Ramsay SchoolAcademy converter High Wycombe Inadequate 2022 35.4 —
Trumpington Community CollegeAcademy converter Cambridge Good 2023 50.4 0.610.27 to 0.96
Orchard Mead AcademyAcademy sponsor led Leicester Report card 2026 38.9 -0.69-0.89 to -0.48
Ark Bolingbroke AcademyFree schools London No overall grade 60.2 1.040.78 to 1.31
Co-op Academy PriesthorpeAcademy converter Pudsey Good 2024 41.1 -0.40-0.60 to -0.20
Twickenham SchoolAcademy sponsor led Twickenham Report card 2025 46.5 0.20-0.05 to 0.46 · not a win
Christ's College FinchleyAcademy converter London No overall grade 56.8 0.700.47 to 0.94
Fulwood AcademyAcademy sponsor led Preston Good 2023 41.4 -0.37-0.63 to -0.11
The Pedmore High SchoolAcademy converter Stourbridge Good 2023 39.6 -0.36-0.62 to -0.10
The Westwood AcademyAcademy converter Coventry No overall grade 40.7 -0.08-0.35 to 0.18 · not a win
Haven High AcademyAcademy converter Boston Inadequate 2024 31.7 -0.65-0.83 to -0.47
The Totteridge AcademyAcademy sponsor led London Report card 2025 58.2 1.321.07 to 1.57

Matching uses only characteristics a school does not choose. It is not a ranking, and a close match on intake does not make two schools interchangeable — sixth form, faith character, admissions rules and simple geography all matter and are not in the calculation.

Evidence ledger

Reference dates and join methods are kept separate because the figures do not all describe the same year or geography.

EvidencePublisherReference dateHow it reaches this page
School identityGet Information About Schools23 August 2026Exact URN 146367; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 7 February 2023
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
Progress 8DfE performance tables2023/24Exact URN; confidence interval retained
AdmissionsDfE school applications and offers2026/27 plus history to 2014/15Exact URN and entry point; national offer day
Pupil intakeDfE school census2024/25Exact URN; suppressed values remain missing
Funding allocationDfE school funding statistics2025-26 financial yearNo row for this URN in the mainstream-school release; not represented as zero
Roads and transportDfT road casualties, traffic and NaPTANFive-year road window; access-node snapshotCoordinate join within the stated radius
NeighbourhoodONS Census2021LSOA/MSOA containing the school, not pupil homes
DeprivationEnglish Indices of Deprivation2019LSOA containing the school
Home pricesHM Land Registry Price Paid DataSales since January 2024School postcode sector, not a catchment

These sources are published for reuse under the Open Government Licence v3.0, including the Crown database-right notice that accompanies Price Paid Data. Definitions and source notes. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.

Questions this school record can answer

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What does the latest inspection evidence say?

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How should I compare nearby schools?

Compare the same phase, cohort and academic year, then keep intake context and confidence intervals beside performance measures.

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