SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Chester le Street, County Durham

Hermitage Academy

Waldridge Lane, Chester le Street, County Durham, DH2 3AD

Ofsted Good · 2024
School website

Ofsted

Goodas at 12 March 2024

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 12 March 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

49.1 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

43% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

70% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.4 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

65% 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 second most disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the top quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.12confidence interval -0.08 to 0.33

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
31.1

England average 32.3

A level students
42

Pupils

Pupils on roll
881
Places
1050
How full
84% full — 881 of 1050 places taken
Girls / boys
448 / 433
Overall absence
7%

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
31%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
2%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
2%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
14%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
89%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
76%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
9%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
35%
No sustained destination
9%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
197

After sixth form

Went to university
46%

England 50%

In education, work or training
90%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
12%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
52

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

21% 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
58%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
38

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 County Durham 011D, 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
33%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
15%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
75%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
16%

England 17%

Households with no car
18%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
39%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
None
Sixth form
No
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
NORTH EAST LEARNING TRUST
Headteacher
Headteacher: Lindsay Maughan
Local authority
County Durham
Ward
Chester-le-Street South
Constituency
North Durham
URN
147531

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Park View SchoolAcademy converter No grade 46.4 0.9 mi
Lord Lawson of Beamish AcademyAcademy converter No grade 46.6 3 mi
Oxclose Community AcademyAcademy converter No grade 41.8 3.6 mi
Framwellgate School DurhamAcademy converter No grade 45.2 3.7 mi
St Robert of Newminster Catholic School and Sixth Form College, WashingtonAcademy converter Good 2023 48.9 3.8 mi
Biddick AcademyAcademy converter No grade 42.5 4.1 mi
North Durham AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2022 39.8 4.1 mi
St Leonard's Catholic School, DurhamAcademy converter No grade 57.7 4.7 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
New Mills SchoolCommunity school No grade 44.5
Frederick Gough SchoolCommunity school Good 2023 42.2
Lift New RickstonesAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 40.6
Campion SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 44.5
Clacton County High SchoolAcademy converter No grade 38.6
Loxford SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 54.4
English Martyrs Catholic School and Sixth Form CollegeAcademy converter No grade 41.2
Kirk Balk AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 46

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.