SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Rochdale

St Cuthbert's Roman Catholic High School, a Voluntary Academy

Shaw Road, Thornham, Rochdale, Lancashire, OL16 4RX

Ofsted Requires improvement · 2022 Roman Catholic
School website 01706647761
Ofsted Requires improvement March 2022
Attainment 8 39.7 in the bottom quarter nationally
Chance of a place 100% of first choices offered
Local deprivation 7/10 mid-range

Ofsted

Requires improvementas at 29 March 2022

Graded Requires improvement at its last graded inspection, on 29 March 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

Current published outcome
Requires improvement
Last overall grade in this dataset
Requires improvement
Days since inspection
1,648 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”.

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

39.7 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

29% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

47% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

3.4 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

19% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the bottom quarter of state-funded secondaries in England.

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

Progress 8 2023/24

No Progress 8 score published for this school.

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.

Getting a place 2026/27 entry

About as many first choices as places. Of the 103 families who named this school as their first choice, 100% were offered a place.

Places offered
127

for entry into Year 7

Named it first choice
103
First choices per place
0.81

England average 1.00

First choices offered a place
100%

England 88.5%

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
1023
Places
1200
How full
85% full — 1023 of 1200 places taken
Girls / boys
527 / 496
Overall absence
11%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
33%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
44%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
30%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
3%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
19%

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
1

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
11

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
5
Busiest road nearby
A671

7,464 vehicles a day (2025)

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
8

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Rochdale Rail Station

2.4 km away — railway station

Traffic volume is the context the collision count needs: a school beside a major road will record more collisions than one on a quiet street without being any less well run.

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

7/10 Deprivation decile

Among the less deprived half of England.

8/10 Child poverty decile

Among the less deprived half of England for children in low-income families.

Indices of Deprivation 2019, for the small area the school stands in. 1 means the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. The second measure counts only children living in low-income families, which is the one that describes the intake a school is likely to draw on.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£218,750

postcode sector OL16 4 · 334 sales

Typical range
£169,000 to £285,000

middle half of sales

Detached
£343,000
Semi-detached
£216,000
Terraced
£170,000
Flat
£131,225

Homes around this school are cheaper 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
40%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
11%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
8%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
25%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
48%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
89%

England 62.7%

Social housing
2%

England 17%

Privately rented
9%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
50%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
14%

England 22.5%

No car
6%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for Rochdale 016E 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
Academy sponsor led
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–16
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Sixth form
No
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: Emma Keenan
Opened as this establishment
1 November 2023
Register status
Open
Local authority
Rochdale
Ward
Balderstone & Kirkholt
Constituency
Rochdale
URN
149873

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Official DfE record
Open the register entry

The source record for this establishment and URN.

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

1.10 2024/25: 0.69 first choices per place2025/26: 0.72 first choices per place2026/27: 0.81 first choices per place20242026
All 3 annual observations
Entry yearPlacesFirst choicesPer placeFirst choices offered
2024/25 215 149 0.69 100%
2025/26 182 131 0.72 100%
2026/27 127 103 0.81 100%

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

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8DistanceCompare
Kingsway Park High SchoolAcademy converter No overall grade 35.3 -0.49-0.68 to -0.31 0.9 mi
The Crompton House Church of England AcademyAcademy converter Good 2024 46.8 -0.02-0.18 to 0.13 · not a win 1.4 mi
Beech House SchoolOther independent school No overall grade — — 1.7 mi
Hollingworth AcademyAcademy converter Good 2022 51.1 -0.02-0.19 to 0.15 · not a win 2 mi
E-ACT Royton and Crompton AcademyAcademy sponsor led No overall grade 38.7 -0.53-0.74 to -0.32 2.1 mi
E-ACT the Oldham Academy NorthAcademy sponsor led No overall grade 48.2 0.380.21 to 0.55 2.1 mi
Matthew Moss High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2024 39.4 -0.03-0.22 to 0.16 · not a win 2.2 mi
Darul Madinah Rochdale LtdOther independent school No overall grade — — 2.4 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.

This school 39.7
Median of its 12 closest peers 42.1
Rochdale average 33.8
England average 47

Attainment 8 score. This school is behind the schools that teach a comparable intake.

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
The John Roan SchoolAcademy sponsor led London Good 2023 44.3 -0.29-0.53 to -0.06
Lea Manor High SchoolAcademy sponsor led Luton Report card 2026 36.3 -0.98-1.17 to -0.78
Didsbury High SchoolFree schools Manchester Outstanding 2024 57.1 0.670.47 to 0.87
St Matthew AcademyAcademy sponsor led London No overall grade 47.2 0.570.35 to 0.80
Co-op Academy PriesthorpeAcademy converter Pudsey Good 2024 41.1 -0.40-0.60 to -0.20
Chase High SchoolAcademy sponsor led Westcliff-on-Sea Report card 2026 39.2 -0.93-1.15 to -0.70
The Brittons AcademyAcademy converter Rainham Good 2022 39.5 -0.28-0.55 to -0.01
Harris Academy MordenAcademy sponsor led Morden Outstanding 2024 46.6 0.490.27 to 0.71
Chace Community SchoolCommunity school Enfield Good 2022 42.1 -0.60-0.81 to -0.39
Cantell SchoolFoundation school Southampton Outstanding 2024 46.9 0.210.02 to 0.39
The Royal Sutton SchoolAcademy sponsor led Sutton Coldfield Good 2023 39.7 -0.74-0.96 to -0.53
Lawn Manor AcademyAcademy converter Swindon Good 2023 37.5 -0.03-0.27 to 0.21 · 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.

EvidencePublisherReference dateHow it reaches this page
School identityGet Information About Schools23 August 2026Exact URN 149873; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 29 March 2022
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
AdmissionsDfE school applications and offers2026/27 plus history to 2014/15Exact URN and entry point; national offer day
Pupil intakeDfE school census2024/25Exact URN; suppressed values remain missing
Funding allocationDfE school funding statistics2025-26 financial yearNo row for this URN in the mainstream-school release; not represented as zero
Roads and transportDfT road casualties, traffic and NaPTANFive-year road window; access-node snapshotCoordinate join within the stated radius
NeighbourhoodONS Census2021LSOA/MSOA containing the school, not pupil homes
DeprivationEnglish Indices of Deprivation2019LSOA containing the school
Home pricesHM Land Registry Price Paid DataSales since January 2024School 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.

Questions this school record can answer

Which exact school is this?

Match the DfE URN, school name and address; names and structures can change while the URN remains the stable identifier.

What does the latest inspection evidence say?

Use the inspection date and framework shown. Do not compare a legacy overall grade directly with the newer report-card judgements.

How should I compare nearby schools?

Compare the same phase, cohort and academic year, then keep intake context and confidence intervals beside performance measures.

What must a parent verify?

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