SF School Facts UK

Boys secondary school in Maidenhead, Windsor and Maidenhead

Desborough College

Shoppenhangers Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 2QB

Ofsted Good · 2024 Sixth form Boys
School website 01628634505

Ofsted

Goodas at 17 May 2024

Remained Good at its last ungraded inspection, on 17 May 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.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

45.7 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

54% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

69% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.1 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

40% 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 second least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the lower half.

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.17confidence interval -0.39 to 0.05

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.

A levels 2024/25

Average grade per entry
C+
Average points per entry
32.2

England average 32.3

A level students
27

Pupils

Pupils on roll
539
Places
1140
How full
47% full — 539 of 1140 places taken, so places are likely to be available
Girls / boys
1 / 538
Overall absence
7%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
27%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
18%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
21%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
3%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
8%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
95%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
93%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
42%
No sustained destination
2%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
184

After sixth form

Went to university
30%

England 50%

In education, work or training
81%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
11%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
57

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

2% England 20.9%

The third of higher education providers whose entrants hold the highest average entry qualifications. It is the closest thing in the public data to "did they get into a competitive university", and it separates schools far more sharply than the headline progression rate does.

Went on to a degree
78%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
59

These follow an earlier group of leavers than the figures above, and count anyone reaching higher education within two years rather than the term after leaving, so they are not directly comparable with them.

A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year, and why the university figures track leavers from 2021/22. 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 Windsor and Maidenhead 004E, 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
53%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
13%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
59%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
7%

England 17%

Households with no car
18%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
37%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy sponsor led
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Boys
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
PIONEER EDUCATIONAL TRUST
Headteacher
Principal: Parimal Bhatt
Local authority
Windsor and Maidenhead
Ward
Oldfield
Constituency
Maidenhead
URN
138879

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Claires Court SchoolsOther independent school No grade 0.6 mi
Altwood Church of England SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 40 1 mi
Cox Green SchoolAcademy converter Requires improvement 2024 45.9 1.4 mi
Newlands Girls' SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2024 55.6 1.4 mi
Furze Platt Senior SchoolAcademy converter No grade 47.5 1.5 mi
Holyport CollegeFree schools Good 2023 54.4 2.2 mi
Al-Madani Independent Grammar SchoolOther independent school No grade 3.3 mi
Burnham Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 70.1 3.4 mi

Schools with a similar intake

State-funded secondary schools nationally whose share of disadvantaged pupils is closest to this school's. This is the fairest like-for-like comparison the published data supports.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
Dowdales SchoolCommunity school No grade 41.8
The Woodroffe SchoolFoundation school Good 2023 51.4
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Alford - A Selective AcademyAcademy converter Good 2021 60.5
The King John SchoolAcademy converter No grade 49.6
Cheam High SchoolAcademy converter No grade 50.7
Ansford AcademyAcademy converter No grade 43.7
Birmingham Ormiston AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 54.1
Notley High School and Braintree Sixth FormAcademy converter No grade 44.9

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.