SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Minehead, Somerset

West Somerset College

Bircham Road, Alcombe, Minehead, Somerset, TA24 6AY

Sixth form
School website 01643706061
Ofsted Report card January 2026
Attainment 8 41.2 in the lower half nationally
Pupils 745 49% full
Local deprivation 5/10 mid-range

Ofsted

Report card20 January 2026

Ofsted report card published, on 20 January 2026.

The report card grades separate areas of the school's work. Ofsted does not combine them into one overall judgement.

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
255 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”.

Safeguarding
Met
Inclusion
Expected standard
Curriculum and teaching
Needs attention
Achievement
Needs attention
Attendance and behaviour
Needs attention
Personal development and wellbeing
Expected standard
Post-16 provision
Needs attention
Leadership and governance
Needs attention

The report-card scale is Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention and Urgent improvement. Safeguarding is graded Met or Not met. These are separate judgements, not a league table or an overall score. How Ofsted's current grades work.

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

41.2 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

33% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

55% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

3.4 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

25% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the lower half 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 bottom quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.50confidence interval -0.70 to -0.29

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

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
C
Average points per entry
28.4

England average 32.3

A level students
53

Pupils

Pupils on roll
745
Places
1509
How full
49% full — 745 of 1509 places taken, so places are likely to be available
Girls / boys
362 / 383
Overall absence
14%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
38%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
25%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
5%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
2%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
15%

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
2

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
8

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
4

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
11

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Minehead (West Somerset Railway)

1.3 km away — metro or tram stop

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
84%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
69%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
7%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
33%
No sustained destination
12%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
193

After sixth form

Went to university
14%

England 50%

In education, work or training
71%

England 84.4%

Started an apprenticeship
6%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
84

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

8% 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
42%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
60

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 area around the school

5/10 Deprivation decile

Among around the middle for England.

3/10 Child poverty decile

Among the more 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
£282,500

postcode sector TA24 6 · 194 sales

Typical range
£220,375 to £391,250

middle half of sales

Detached
£415,000
Semi-detached
£280,000
Terraced
£243,000
Flat
£200,000

Homes around this school are close to the England average.

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
24%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
21%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
10%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
19%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
38%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
59%

England 62.7%

Social housing
23%

England 17%

Privately rented
17%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
40%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
17%

England 22.5%

No car
23%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for Somerset West and Taunton 002A 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 converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 13–19
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: Zoe Stucki
Opened as this establishment
1 June 2011
Register status
Open
Local authority
Somerset
Ward
Dunster
Constituency
Tiverton and Minehead
URN
136791

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.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8DistanceCompare
Minehead Middle SchoolAcademy converter No overall grade — — 0.5 mi
Danesfield Church of England Voluntary Controlled Community Middle SchoolAcademy converter Report card 2025 — — 6.4 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 41.2
Median of its 11 closest peers 44.8
Somerset average 33.2
England average 47

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

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
St Clement's High SchoolAcademy sponsor led King's Lynn Good 2023 45.3 -0.06-0.31 to 0.18 · not a win
Lift MaltingsAcademy sponsor led Witham Report card 2026 39.9 -0.64-0.86 to -0.43
Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary AcademyAcademy converter Ilkeston No overall grade 48.1 0.21-0.05 to 0.47 · not a win
Cardinal Allen Catholic High School, FleetwoodVoluntary aided school Fleetwood Report card 2026 43.5 -0.42-0.65 to -0.19
Huxlow AcademyAcademy converter Irthlingborough No overall grade 41.9 -0.67-0.89 to -0.46
Pensby High SchoolFoundation school Wirral Good 2023 44.8 0.280.06 to 0.50
Hobart High SchoolAcademy converter Norwich Good 2023 46.1 0.19-0.07 to 0.45 · not a win
Five Acres High SchoolAcademy sponsor led Coleford Report card 2026 51.8 0.770.53 to 1.01
Stowupland High SchoolAcademy converter Stowmarket Requires improvement 2023 41.1 —
Wetherby High SchoolFoundation school Wetherby Good 2024 49.4 0.290.04 to 0.54
St John's Church of England Middle School AcademyAcademy converter Bromsgrove Good 2023 — —
Flegg High Ormiston AcademyAcademy converter Great Yarmouth No overall grade 42 -0.56-0.78 to -0.33

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 136791; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 20 January 2026
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
Progress 8DfE performance tables2023/24Exact URN; confidence interval retained
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?

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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