SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Canterbury, Kent

The Archbishop's School

St Stephens Hill, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7AP

Ofsted Good · 2023 Sixth form Church of England
School website 01227765805

Ofsted

Goodas at 22 November 2023

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

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 2 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

35.2 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

21% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

44% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

2.9 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

14% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the bottom 10% 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 bottom quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.79confidence interval -1.09 to -0.48

Taking that range into account, pupils made less progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as well below 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
22.4

England average 32.3

A level students
30

Pupils

Pupils on roll
770
Places
900
How full
86% full — 770 of 900 places taken
Girls / boys
383 / 387
Overall absence
15%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
44%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
55%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
27%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
4%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
14%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
89%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
85%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
58%
No sustained destination
6%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
116

After sixth form

Went to university
46%

England 50%

In education, work or training
81%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
0%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
37

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

0% 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
57%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
7

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 Canterbury 013B, 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
33%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
9%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
53%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
11%

England 17%

Households with no car
22%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
52%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Foundation school
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
Church of England
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: David Elliott
Local authority
Kent
Ward
St Stephen's
Constituency
Canterbury
URN
118898

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
St Edmund's School CanterburyOther independent school No grade 0.7 mi
Kent College (Canterbury)Other independent school No grade 0.8 mi
Kent College International Study CentreOther independent school No grade 0.8 mi
The King's School CanterburyOther independent school No grade 1 mi
The Canterbury AcademyAcademy converter No grade 39 1.2 mi
Barton Court Grammar SchoolAcademy converter No grade 66.4 1.4 mi
Barton Manor SchoolFree schools No grade 1.8 mi
The Worthgate SchoolOther independent school No grade 1.9 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
Mossbourne Community AcademyAcademy sponsor led Outstanding 2021 65.1
West Walsall E-ACT AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 39.9
Langdon AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 53.5
Orchard Park High SchoolAcademy sponsor led Good 2024 44.8
Ark Putney AcademyAcademy converter Good 2022 46.3
The Archbishop Lanfranc AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 39.1
Highfield Leadership AcademyAcademy sponsor led Requires improvement 2024 30
London Design and Engineering UTCUniversity technical college No grade 49.5

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.