Secondary school in RUGBY, Warwickshire
Houlton School
Signal Drive, Houlton, RUGBY, Warwickshire, CV23 1ED
Ofsted
Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 27 February 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.
- Current published outcome
- Good
- Last overall grade in this dataset
- Good
- Days since inspection
- 948 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”.
key stage 4 results 2024/25
Not published for this URN in the current phase-appropriate school performance release.
- Evidence found
- No publishable key stage 4 headline attainment value for this exact URN.
- Source coverage
- DfE school-level 2024/25 performance files, joined by URN. Suppressed, not applicable and not published cells remain distinct from zero.
- What this means
- School Facts has no official phase-compatible attainment figure to display for this establishment and year.
- What this does not mean
- The school had no pupils, achieved 0%, performed poorly, or lacks results outside this release.
Getting a place 2026/27 entry
Slightly oversubscribed. Of the 179 families who named this school as their first choice, 83% were offered a place.
- Places offered
- 172
- Named it first choice
- 179
- First choices per place
- 1.04
- First choices offered a place
- 83%
for entry into Year 7
England average 1.00
England 88.5%
First preferences per place are down 18% 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 We do not publish catchment maps, because catchments are not published: each admissions authority applies its own criteria afresh every year, and the distance that got a child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
- 895
- Places
- 1000
- How full
- 90% full — 895 of 1000 places taken
- Girls / boys
- 445 / 450
- Overall absence
- 8%
- Persistently absent
- 21%
secondary schools average 8.6%
secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions
- Free school meals, last 6 years
- 21%
- English as an additional language
- 15%
- With an EHC plan
- 3%
- On SEN support
- 13%
England 25.7%
England 18.7%
England 3.5%
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
- All reported collisions
- 2
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 0
England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years
England average 24.2 over five years
Public transport
- Bus stops within 500m
- 4
- Nearest station
- Rugby Rail Station
England average 11.9
4.4 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.
The area around the school
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £369,950
- Typical range
- £319,500 to £499,562
- Detached
- £450,000
- Semi-detached
- £322,500
- Terraced
- £274,950
- Flat
- £194,995
postcode sector CV23 1 · 354 sales
middle half of sales
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
- 53%
- Adults with no qualifications
- 6%
- In professional or managerial work
- 22%
- Households deprived in 2+ ways
- 7%
- Residents in very good health
- 58%
England 33.8%
England 18.3%
England 13.4%
England 17.8%
England 48.4%
Housing
- Owned by the occupier
- 80%
- Social housing
- 7%
- Privately rented
- 5%
- Detached homes
- 45%
- Four or more bedrooms
- 40%
- No car
- 4%
England 62.7%
England 17%
England 19.2%
England 38.2%
England 22.5%
England 21.9%
Census 2021, for Rugby 014E 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
- Free schools
- Phase
- Secondary
- Ages
- Ages 11–18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Religious character
- None
- Sixth form
- No
- Nursery
- No
- Boarding
- Day school
- Headteacher
- Headteacher: Paul Brockwell
- Opened as this establishment
- 1 September 2021
- Register status
- Open
- Local authority
- Warwickshire
- Ward
- Hillmorton
- Constituency
- Rugby
- URN
- 143707
The unique reference number used in all official school data.
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
All 5 annual observations
| Entry year | Places | First choices | Per place | First choices offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 172 | 177 | 1.03 | 76% |
| 2023/24 | 175 | 223 | 1.27 | 68% |
| 2024/25 | 171 | 192 | 1.12 | 73% |
| 2025/26 | 182 | 169 | 0.93 | 87% |
| 2026/27 | 172 | 179 | 1.04 | 83% |
Reception
All 1 annual observations
| Entry year | Places | First choices | Per place | First choices offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026/27 | 28 | 14 | 0.50 | 93% |
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
| School | Ofsted | Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | Distance | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashlawn SchoolAcademy converter | No overall grade | 50.4 | -0.08-0.25 to 0.09 · not a win | 1.9 mi | |
| Lawrence Sheriff SchoolAcademy converter | Outstanding 2022 | 75.1 | 0.890.63 to 1.16 | 2.8 mi | |
| Rugby SchoolOther independent school | No overall grade | — | — | 3.2 mi | |
| Rugby Free Secondary SchoolFree schools | Report card 2026 | 43.7 | 0.13-0.09 to 0.35 · not a win | 3.2 mi | |
| Harris Church of England AcademyAcademy sponsor led | Good 2022 | 42.5 | 0.16-0.06 to 0.39 · not a win | 3.5 mi | |
| The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts CollegeFoundation school | Good 2023 | 44.4 | -0.28-0.47 to -0.09 | 3.8 mi | |
| Bilton Grange SchoolOther independent school | No overall grade | — | — | 4.2 mi | |
| Rugby High SchoolAcademy converter | Good 2022 | 74.9 | 0.660.39 to 0.93 | 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.
| School | Area | Ofsted | Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coombe Dean SchoolAcademy converter | Plymouth | Report card 2026 | 49.2 | 0.16-0.07 to 0.39 · not a win | |
| Blessed William Howard Catholic SchoolAcademy converter | Stafford | Good 2024 | 52 | 0.410.20 to 0.63 | |
| Yate AcademyAcademy converter | Yate | Report card 2026 | 54.8 | 0.03-0.21 to 0.27 · not a win | |
| Winton AcademyAcademy sponsor led | Bournemouth | Outstanding 2024 | 55.4 | 0.810.60 to 1.02 | |
| Northstowe Learning CommunityAcademy converter | Cambridge | Good 2023 | 51.4 | 0.30-0.01 to 0.60 · not a win | |
| John Hanson Community SchoolCommunity school | Andover | Good 2024 | 43.5 | -0.28-0.47 to -0.08 | |
| Saint Gregory's Catholic CollegeVoluntary aided school | Bath | Good 2022 | 46.6 | 0.420.20 to 0.64 | |
| Attleborough AcademyAcademy converter | Attleborough | Report card 2026 | 41.4 | 0.270.06 to 0.49 | |
| The Catholic High School, ChesterAcademy converter | Chester | Report card 2026 | 46.7 | -0.08-0.39 to 0.23 · not a win | |
| St James's Church of England High SchoolAcademy converter | Bolton | Good 2022 | 53.5 | -0.07-0.27 to 0.12 · not a win | |
| Holy Trinity AcademyVoluntary aided school | Telford | Good 2023 | 45.9 | -0.22-0.45 to 0.00 · not a win | |
| Princes Risborough SchoolAcademy converter | Princes Risborough | Good 2022 | 40.3 | -0.08-0.31 to 0.15 · not a win |
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.
| Evidence | Publisher | Reference date | How it reaches this page |
|---|---|---|---|
| School identity | Get Information About Schools | 23 August 2026 | Exact URN 143707; unified importer snapshot |
| Inspection evidence | Ofsted management information | 31 July 2026 | Exact URN; inspection 27 February 2024 |
| Admissions | DfE school applications and offers | 2026/27 plus history to 2014/15 | Exact URN and entry point; national offer day |
| Pupil intake | DfE school census | 2024/25 | Exact URN; suppressed values remain missing |
| Funding allocation | DfE school funding statistics | 2025-26 financial year | No row for this URN in the mainstream-school release; not represented as zero |
| Roads and transport | DfT road casualties, traffic and NaPTAN | Five-year road window; access-node snapshot | Coordinate join within the stated radius |
| Neighbourhood | ONS Census | 2021 | LSOA/MSOA containing the school, not pupil homes |
| Home prices | HM Land Registry Price Paid Data | Sales since January 2024 | School 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.