SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Hereford, Herefordshire, County of

St Mary's RC High School

Lugwardine, Hereford, Herefordshire, HR1 4DR

Roman Catholic Full
School website 01432850416
Ofsted No grade December 2024
Attainment 8 52.2 in the top quarter nationally
Chance of a place 76% of first choices offered
Local deprivation 9/10 less deprived

Ofsted

Standards maintained at the last ungraded inspection, on 11 December 2024.

This inspection did not give an overall grade. Read the report for Ofsted's findings; it cannot be compared as a single score with a historic grade.

Read the Ofsted report

Current published outcome
Report card — no overall grade
Last overall grade in this dataset
Not stored — this dataset keeps the latest inspection, which has no overall grade
Days since inspection
660 days
Framework era
Current framework (no overall grade)

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

52.2 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

60% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

80% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.7 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

56% England 40.8%

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

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

Progress 8 2023/24

0.10confidence interval -0.14 to 0.33

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.

Getting a place 2026/27 entry

Slightly oversubscribed. Of the 189 families who named this school as their first choice, 76% were offered a place.

Places offered
146

for entry into Year 7

Named it first choice
189
First choices per place
1.29

England average 1.00

First choices offered a place
76%

England 88.5%

Demand has been broadly steady over three years.

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
745
Places
675
How full
Full — 745 pupils against 675 places
Girls / boys
372 / 373
Overall absence
5%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
12%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
11%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
26%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
5%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
16%

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
0

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
3

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
0
Busiest road nearby
C

530 vehicles a day (2019)

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
5

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Hereford Rail Station

3.4 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.

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
95%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
90%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
4%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
1%
No sustained destination
4%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
147

A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.

The area around the school

9/10 Deprivation decile

Among the least deprived fifth of England.

9/10 Child poverty decile

Among the least deprived fifth 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
£375,000

postcode sector HR1 4 · 176 sales

Typical range
£275,000 to £515,625

middle half of sales

Detached
£470,000
Semi-detached
£269,250
Terraced
£250,000
Flat
£196,250

Homes around this school are dearer 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
39%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
13%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
14%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
13%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
49%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
80%

England 62.7%

Social housing
5%

England 17%

Privately rented
13%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
59%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
37%

England 22.5%

No car
6%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for Herefordshire 008A 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
Voluntary aided school
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: Stuart Wetson
Register status
Open
Ward
Hagley
Constituency
North Herefordshire
URN
116992

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

1.60 2014/15: 1.16 first choices per place2015/16: 1.28 first choices per place2016/17: 1.46 first choices per place2017/18: 1.17 first choices per place2018/19: 1.45 first choices per place2019/20: 1.22 first choices per place2020/21: 1.34 first choices per place2021/22: 1.18 first choices per place2022/23: 1.31 first choices per place2023/24: 1.42 first choices per place2024/25: 1.31 first choices per place2025/26: 1.20 first choices per place2026/27: 1.29 first choices per place2014201620182020202220242026
All 13 annual observations
Entry yearPlacesFirst choicesPer placeFirst choices offered
2014/15 148 171 1.16 86%
2015/16 133 170 1.28 78%
2016/17 137 200 1.46 67%
2017/18 151 176 1.17 85%
2018/19 146 211 1.45 68%
2019/20 149 182 1.22 81%
2020/21 145 195 1.34 74%
2021/22 143 169 1.18 83%
2022/23 147 192 1.31 76%
2023/24 143 203 1.42 70%
2024/25 149 195 1.31 75%
2025/26 147 176 1.20 82%
2026/27 146 189 1.29 76%

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
The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat SchoolVoluntary aided school Report card 2026 45.9 -0.17-0.38 to 0.03 · not a win 1.1 mi
Aylestone SchoolCommunity school Requires improvement 2024 36.3 -0.80-1.10 to -0.49 1.5 mi
Hereford Cathedral School With A Junior SchoolOther independent school No overall grade — — 2.5 mi
The Hereford Church of England AcademyAcademy sponsor led Requires improvement 2024 39.6 -1.09-1.36 to -0.82 3.5 mi
Whitecross HerefordAcademy converter Good 2023 46.5 -0.30-0.50 to -0.10 3.6 mi
The Steiner Academy HerefordAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 51 1.571.00 to 2.13 7.3 mi
Kingstone High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2024 42.3 -0.67-0.92 to -0.42 8.5 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 52.2
Median of its 11 closest peers 52.5
Herefordshire, County of average 39.1
England average 47

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

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
King David High SchoolVoluntary aided school Liverpool Good 2022 54.3 0.500.24 to 0.76
The Wavell SchoolCommunity school Farnborough Report card 2026 44 0.200.01 to 0.40
King's Leadership Academy WarringtonFree schools Warrington No overall grade 56 0.500.27 to 0.73
Blessed George Napier Catholic School and Sixth FormAcademy converter Banbury Good 2022 48.5 0.240.01 to 0.48
The John Fisher SchoolVoluntary aided school Purley Good 2023 55.6 0.280.07 to 0.49
Croxley Danes SchoolFree schools Rickmansworth Report card 2026 51.3 0.10-0.12 to 0.31 · not a win
Holyport CollegeFree schools Holyport Good 2023 54.4 0.580.22 to 0.94
Verulam SchoolAcademy converter St Albans Good 2024 52.5 0.400.17 to 0.63
Trevelyan Middle SchoolAcademy converter Windsor No overall grade — —
Sandhurst SchoolAcademy converter Sandhurst No overall grade 46.1 -0.37-0.57 to -0.17
Manor High SchoolAcademy converter Leicester Good 2024 58.9 0.690.49 to 0.89
Waddesdon Church of England SchoolAcademy converter Aylesbury Report card 2026 51 0.510.27 to 0.75

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 116992; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 11 December 2024
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
Progress 8DfE performance tables2023/24Exact URN; confidence interval retained
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

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What does the latest inspection evidence say?

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How should I compare nearby schools?

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