Secondary school in Brighton, Brighton and Hove
Varndean School
Balfour Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 6NP
Ofsted
Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 5 October 2022.
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.
GCSE results 2024/25
Attainment 8 score
The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.
Grade 5+ in English & maths
Grade 4+ in English & maths
EBacc average point score
Entered the EBacc
On Attainment 8 this school is in the upper half of state-funded secondaries in England.
Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is middle, which is where this one sits, it is in the top quarter.
Progress 8 2023/24
Taking that range into account, pupils made more progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as above 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.
Pupils
- Pupils on roll
- 1487
- Places
- 1500
- How full
- Nearly full — 1487 of 1500 places taken
- Girls / boys
- 739 / 748
- Overall absence
- 9%
- Persistently absent
- 22%
secondary schools average 8.6%
secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions
- Free school meals, last 6 years
- 21%
- English as an additional language
- 9%
- With an EHC plan
- 6%
- On SEN support
- 25%
England 25.7%
England 18.7%
England 3.5%
England 15%
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
- In education, work or training
- 96%
- Stayed in education
- 94%
- Started an apprenticeship
- 1%
- Stayed at this school's sixth form
- 3%
- No sustained destination
- 3%
- Pupils in the cohort
- 293
England 91.4%
England 85.4%
England 3.5%
England 5.8%
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 neighbourhood around the school
Census 2021 figures for Brighton and Hove 004C, 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
- 59%
- Adults with no qualifications
- 8%
- Households owning their home
- 87%
- Households in social housing
- 6%
- Households with no car
- 12%
- Adults economically inactive
- 42%
England 33.8%
England 18.3%
England 62.7%
England 17%
England 21.9%
England 39.9%
School details
- Type
- Community school
- Phase
- Secondary
- Ages
- Ages 11–16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Religious character
- None
- Sixth form
- No
- Nursery
- No
- Boarding
- Day school
- Headteacher
- Headteacher: Shelley Baker
- Local authority
- Brighton and Hove
- Ward
- Preston Park
- Constituency
- Brighton Pavilion
- URN
- 114579
The unique reference number used in all official school data.
Nearest secondary schools
| School | Ofsted | Attainment 8 | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dorothy Stringer SchoolCommunity school | Good 2023 | 53.3 | 0.3 mi |
| Patcham High SchoolCommunity school | Good 2023 | 45.5 | 0.9 mi |
| Cardinal Newman Catholic SchoolVoluntary aided school | No grade | 50.4 | 1.3 mi |
| Kings BrightonOther independent school | No grade | — | 1.4 mi |
| The Montessori PlaceOther independent school | No grade | — | 1.7 mi |
| Brighton Girls GDSTOther independent school | No grade | — | 1.7 mi |
| Brighton Aldridge Community AcademyAcademy sponsor led | No grade | 36.2 | 1.9 mi |
| Blatchington Mill SchoolCommunity school | Good 2022 | 51 | 2 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.
| School | Ofsted | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|
| St Hilda's Church of England High SchoolVoluntary aided school | No grade | 51.8 |
| The Charter School North DulwichAcademy converter | No grade | 65 |
| The Arnewood SchoolAcademy converter | No grade | 37.6 |
| Abbey Grange Church of England AcademyAcademy converter | No grade | 55.9 |
| King Charles I SchoolAcademy converter | Good 2023 | 44 |
| Hellesdon High SchoolAcademy converter | Requires improvement 2023 | 40.3 |
| City of Norwich School, An Ormiston AcademyAcademy converter | Good 2021 | 50.4 |
| Ken Stimpson AcademyAcademy converter | Requires improvement 2022 | 41.7 |
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.