SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Harlow, Essex

St Mark's West Essex Catholic School

Tripton Road, Harlow, Essex, CM18 6AA

Ofsted Good · 2023 Sixth form Roman Catholic
School website 01279421267

Ofsted

Goodas at 22 February 2023

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 22 February 2023.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 3 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

46.3 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

39% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

61% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.3 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

73% 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

-0.04confidence interval -0.26 to 0.18

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
D+
Average points per entry
22.3

England average 32.3

A level students
99

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1099
Places
1120
How full
Nearly full — 1099 of 1120 places taken
Girls / boys
546 / 553
Overall absence
7%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
17%

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
25%

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
90%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
4%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
54%
No sustained destination
1%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
167

After sixth form

Went to university
74%

England 50%

In education, work or training
94%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
3%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
88

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

6% 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
81%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
97

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 Harlow 006E, 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
22%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
20%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
57%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
31%

England 17%

Households with no car
23%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
35%

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
ST. MARK'S WEST ESSEX CATHOLIC SCHOOL
Headteacher
Headteacher: John Taylor
Local authority
Essex
Ward
Bush Fair
Constituency
Harlow
URN
137058

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Bmat Stem AcademyUniversity technical college Good 2023 28.1 0.4 mi
Sir Frederick Gibberd CollegeFree schools No grade 44 0.4 mi
Burnt Mill AcademyAcademy converter Good 2023 45.2 0.9 mi
Passmores AcademyAcademy converter Good 2024 34.8 1 mi
Stewards Academy - Science Specialist, HarlowAcademy converter Requires improvement 2024 38.9 1 mi
Mark Hall AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 38.9 1.5 mi
Saint Nicholas SchoolOther independent school No grade 2.3 mi
LeventhorpeAcademy converter Good 2024 49.6 4.4 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
Dorothy Stringer SchoolCommunity school Good 2023 53.3
Willingdon Community SchoolCommunity school Good 2023 45
The Queen Katherine SchoolAcademy converter No grade 48.8
East Barnet SchoolAcademy converter No grade 53
King Edward VI Five Ways SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 75.9
Tapton School & Sixth FormAcademy converter No grade 58
Cobham Free SchoolFree schools Good 2023 53.1
Hedingham School and Sixth FormAcademy converter Good 2023 39.9

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.