SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland and Furness

Kirkby Stephen Grammar School

Christian Head, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, CA17 4HA

Ofsted Good · 2024 Sixth form
School website 01768371693

Ofsted

Goodas at 30 January 2024

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 30 January 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

47.7 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

41% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

65% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

12% 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 least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the better-performing half.

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.02confidence interval -0.43 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.

A levels 2024/25

Average grade per entry
C
Average points per entry
29.4

England average 32.3

A level students
26

Pupils

Pupils on roll
377
Places
545
How full
69% full — 377 of 545 places taken, so places are likely to be available
Girls / boys
190 / 187
Overall absence
6%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
13%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
19%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
3%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
3%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
21%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
100%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
72%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
23%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
42%
No sustained destination
0%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
57

After sixth form

Went to university
65%

England 50%

In education, work or training
88%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
6%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
34

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
59%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
29

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 Eden 007C, 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
28%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
25%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
52%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
21%

England 17%

Households with no car
24%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
44%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
CUMBRIA EDUCATION TRUST
Headteacher
Headteacher: Nicola Tweddle
Ward
Kirkby Stephen and Tebay
Constituency
Westmorland and Lonsdale
URN
137107

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Appleby Grammar SchoolAcademy converter No grade 40.7 9.5 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.