SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Ipswich, Suffolk

St Alban's Catholic High School

Digby Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 3NJ

Sixth form Roman Catholic
School website 01473726178

Ofsted

Standards maintained at the last ungraded inspection, on 24 April 2025.

Inspections since September 2024 do not give an overall grade, so there is no one-word judgement to report. The full report sets out what inspectors found.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

46.9 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

42% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

65% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

23% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is around the middle 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 lower half.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.13confidence interval -0.11 to 0.36

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
31.6

England average 32.3

A level students
51

Pupils

Pupils on roll
967
Places
1020
How full
95% full — 967 of 1020 places taken
Girls / boys
514 / 453
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
22%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
38%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
2%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
10%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
96%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
93%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
3%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
70%
No sustained destination
3%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
160

After sixth form

Went to university
53%

England 50%

In education, work or training
86%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
7%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
83

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

30% 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
75%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
40

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 Ipswich 009A, 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
36%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
14%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
90%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
2%

England 17%

Households with no car
11%

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
Roman Catholic
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM CATHOLIC MULTI ACADEMY TRUST
Headteacher
Principal: Simon Corless
Local authority
Suffolk
Ward
Bixley
Constituency
Ipswich
URN
137849

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Copleston High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 46.9 0.6 mi
Northgate High SchoolCommunity school No grade 50.6 1 mi
Kesgrave High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 49.7 1.9 mi
Ipswich SchoolOther independent school No grade 2.1 mi
Ipswich AcademyAcademy sponsor led Requires improvement 2024 37.6 2.4 mi
Stoke High School - Ormiston AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2022 34.3 2.6 mi
Ormiston Endeavour AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2022 42.8 3 mi
St Joseph's CollegeOther independent school No grade 3.1 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
Westhoughton High SchoolCommunity school No grade 44.4
Purbrook Park SchoolFoundation school Good 2023 47.7
Hodgson AcademyAcademy converter Good 2022 49.5
West Somerset CollegeAcademy converter No grade 41.2
The Westgate SchoolAcademy converter No grade 40.6
Devizes SchoolAcademy converter No grade 45.3
Chetwynde SchoolFree schools Good 2023 44.2
The Orme AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2024 43.8

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.