SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Neston, Cheshire West and Chester

Neston High School

Raby Park Road, Neston, Cheshire, CH64 9NH

Ofsted Good · 2022 Sixth form Full
School website 01513363902

Ofsted

Goodas at 9 February 2022

Remained Good at its last ungraded inspection, on 9 February 2022.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 4 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

43.4 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

37% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

64% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

3.7 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

33% England 40.8%

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

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is middle, which is where this one sits, it is in the lower half.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.22confidence interval 0.05 to 0.38

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

England average 32.3

A level students
95

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1712
Places
1719
How full
Nearly full — 1712 of 1719 places taken
Girls / boys
810 / 902
Overall absence
8%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
23%

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
2%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
4%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
13%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
95%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
87%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
5%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
39%
No sustained destination
3%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
301

After sixth form

Went to university
38%

England 50%

In education, work or training
82%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
9%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
120

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

16% 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
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 neighbourhood around the school

Census 2021 figures for Cheshire West and Chester 001B, 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
30%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
20%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
65%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
22%

England 17%

Households with no car
16%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
48%

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
NESTON HIGH SCHOOL
Headteacher
Headteacher: Kirsty Cunningham
Ward
Neston
Constituency
Chester North and Neston
URN
138318

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
South Wirral High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 3.3 mi
Wirral Grammar School for BoysAcademy converter Good 2022 65.4 3.9 mi
Wirral Grammar School for GirlsAcademy converter Outstanding 2022 69.3 3.9 mi
Pensby High SchoolFoundation school Good 2023 44.8 4 mi
Co-op Academy BebingtonAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 37.3 4.2 mi
St John Plessington Catholic CollegeAcademy converter Good 2022 37.2 4.7 mi
Prenton High School for GirlsAcademy converter Good 2022 38.9 5.1 mi
Woodchurch High SchoolAcademy converter No grade 37.9 5.5 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
Woodbridge High SchoolCommunity school Outstanding 2023 52.2
Gillingham SchoolVoluntary controlled school Good 2023 42.7
Christopher Whitehead Language CollegeAcademy converter Good 2023 43.8
The Academy, SelseyAcademy sponsor led No grade 38
Horsforth SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 57.3
Mark Rutherford SchoolAcademy converter No grade 41.5
The Catholic High School, ChesterAcademy converter No grade 46.7
Hampton CollegeAcademy converter Good 2023 44.5

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.