SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Dunstable, Central Bedfordshire

Harlington Upper School

Goswell End Road, Harlington, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, LU5 6NX

Ofsted Good · 2023 Sixth form
School website 01525755100
Ofsted Good October 2023
Attainment 8 47.8 in the upper half nationally
Pupils 1,156 85% full
Local deprivation 10/10 less deprived

Ofsted

Goodas at 3 October 2023

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 3 October 2023.

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

Current published outcome
Good
Last overall grade in this dataset
Good
Days since inspection
1,095 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

47.8 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

48% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

76% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.2 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

34% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the upper half of state-funded secondaries in England.

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

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.34confidence interval -0.49 to -0.18

Taking that range into account, pupils made less progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as supp.

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
31.4

England average 32.3

A level students
187

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1156
Places
1360
How full
85% full — 1156 of 1360 places taken
Girls / boys
570 / 586
Overall absence
8%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
20%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
13%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
4%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
2%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
10%

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
0

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
3

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
1

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
12

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Harlington (Beds) Rail Station

0.8 km away — railway station

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
93%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
83%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
6%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
47%
No sustained destination
4%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
305

After sixth form

Went to university
52%

England 50%

In education, work or training
86%

England 84.4%

Started an apprenticeship
7%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
122

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

18% 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
63%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
142

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 area around the school

10/10 Deprivation decile

Among the least deprived fifth of England.

8/10 Child poverty decile

Among the less deprived half 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
£399,000

postcode sector LU5 6 · 576 sales

Typical range
£325,000 to £480,000

middle half of sales

Detached
£496,000
Semi-detached
£385,000
Terraced
£307,500
Flat
£178,000

Homes around this school are dearer than most of England.

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
38%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
16%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
20%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
9%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
54%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
79%

England 62.7%

Social housing
13%

England 17%

Privately rented
8%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
46%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
42%

England 22.5%

No car
11%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for Central Bedfordshire 017C 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 13–18
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: Helen Harris
Opened as this establishment
1 March 2012
Register status
Open
Local authority
Central Bedfordshire
Ward
Toddington
Constituency
Mid Bedfordshire
URN
137941

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 9

1.10 2014/15: 0.99 first choices per place2015/16: 1.00 first choices per place2016/17: 0.98 first choices per place2017/18: 0.93 first choices per place2018/19: 0.94 first choices per place2019/20: 1.00 first choices per place2020/21: 1.00 first choices per place2021/22: 0.92 first choices per place2022/23: 0.93 first choices per place2023/24: 0.98 first choices per place2024/25: 0.88 first choices per place2025/26: 0.91 first choices per place2014201620182020202220242025
All 12 annual observations
Entry yearPlacesFirst choicesPer placeFirst choices offered
2014/15 283 280 0.99 100%
2015/16 258 258 1.00 100%
2016/17 256 251 0.98 100%
2017/18 241 224 0.93 100%
2018/19 240 226 0.94 100%
2019/20 219 218 1.00 100%
2020/21 240 240 1.00 100%
2021/22 251 230 0.92 100%
2022/23 227 211 0.93 100%
2023/24 212 207 0.98 100%
2024/25 233 206 0.88 100%
2025/26 202 184 0.91 100%

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
Parkfields Middle SchoolAcademy converter Good 2024 — — 2.4 mi
Woodland Middle School AcademyAcademy converter Good 2023 — — 2.6 mi
Arnold AcademyAcademy converter Good 2023 — — 2.9 mi
Lealands High SchoolFoundation school Good 2023 44.3 -0.04-0.25 to 0.16 · not a win 3.4 mi
Redborne Upper School and Community CollegeAcademy converter Good 2024 46.6 0.08-0.07 to 0.22 · not a win 3.6 mi
Lea Manor High SchoolAcademy sponsor led Report card 2026 36.3 -0.98-1.17 to -0.78 3.7 mi
Houstone SchoolFree schools No overall grade 46.1 -0.74-1.16 to -0.33 3.8 mi
Cardinal Newman Catholic School A Specialist Science CollegeAcademy converter Good 2024 50 0.380.20 to 0.55 4.2 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 47.8
Median of its 12 closest peers 54.6
Central Bedfordshire average 45
England average 47

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

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
Becket Keys Church of England Free SchoolFree schools Brentwood No overall grade 56 0.420.19 to 0.64
Haybridge High School and Sixth FormAcademy converter Stourbridge Good 2022 59.3 0.390.18 to 0.61
Congleton High SchoolAcademy converter Congleton Good 2023 44.8 -0.47-0.67 to -0.27
St John Fisher Catholic AcademyAcademy converter Harrogate Good 2022 55.1 0.590.41 to 0.78
Midhurst Rother CollegeAcademy sponsor led Midhurst Outstanding 2024 48.8 0.02-0.18 to 0.21 · not a win
Yateley SchoolCommunity school Yateley Good 2023 47.8 0.16-0.04 to 0.35 · not a win
Cams Hill SchoolAcademy converter Fareham No overall grade 52.5 -0.08-0.26 to 0.10 · not a win
Richard Hale SchoolAcademy converter Hertford Good 2024 56.3 0.310.10 to 0.53
The Hayfield SchoolAcademy converter Doncaster Good 2023 52.6 0.630.43 to 0.82
Park House SchoolAcademy converter Newbury No overall grade 55.9 0.600.38 to 0.81
Holmes Chapel Comprehensive SchoolAcademy converter Crewe No overall grade 48.2 -0.04-0.22 to 0.15 · not a win
Swavesey Village CollegeAcademy converter Cambridge Outstanding 2024 54.6 0.550.37 to 0.73

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 137941; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 3 October 2023
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
Progress 8DfE performance tables2023/24Exact URN; confidence interval retained
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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Match the DfE URN, school name and address; names and structures can change while the URN remains the stable identifier.

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.

What must a parent verify?

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