St Nicholas Catholic High School
Secondary · Northwich · CW8 1JW
Data updated
Graded inspection under the pre-November 2025 system
This is an overall-effectiveness grade from the previous inspection framework. The school has not yet had a report-card inspection.
Inspected 5 March 2024
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
1,201 pupils · 97% of 1,240 capacity (January 2026 census)
- School type
- Voluntary aided school
- Age range
- 11–18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- Roman Catholic
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 13.9% of pupils (January 2026)
- English as additional language
- 13.4% of pupils (2024/2025)
- SEN support
- 7.7% of pupils (2024/2025)
- EHC plan
- 3.8% of pupils (2024/2025)
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Website
- st-nicholas.cheshire.sch.uk
- URN
- 111450
In figures
For September 2026 entry, 182 families named it first for 202 Year 7 places, 0.90 first choices per place. We hold 5 Year 7 admissions rounds for it, 2022 to 2026; none was decided by a published distance. Ofsted last graded it Good on 5 March 2024, under the framework used before November 2025. In the 2025/26 autumn and spring terms its pupils missed 7.7% of sessions, against 6.6% across England.
Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026
0.90 first-choice applications per place202 places offered · 182 first-choice applications · roughly balanced
First-choice applications per place, by entry year
Source: DfE applications and offers on national offer day · how demand is measured
Catchment area
Catchment area: not named in the council's figures. Every applicant was offered a place for 2026 entry, so distance was not needed to decide places.
Admissions cutoff distance: Year 7
Every applicant was offered a place for 2026 entry, so distance was not needed to decide places.
Cutoff by admission criterion (2025 entry)
- Criterion 6 (any other children)
- 5.539 miles
2025 is the most recent year we hold a cutoff for this school. It describes that year, not 2026.
How safe is a place here? Check your postcode
One free check a month, no account needed. No cutoff distance applied in 2026, so there is no boundary for your address to be inside of. The check shows how far you live from the school and how many rounds running it has placed every applicant. Premium adds unlimited checks, the nearby schools that do ration places by distance and whether you are inside them, and the address check across every school at once.
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Source: the admissions authority's published figures · how cutoffs work
Compare admissions across the area: Northwich school admissions · Cheshire West and Chester school admissions
GCSE results (2024/2025)
197 pupils at the end of key stage 4 in 2024/2025
Progress 8 is suspended nationally for 2024/25 and 2025/26. These cohorts sat no key stage 2 tests (COVID), so there is no baseline to measure progress from.
A-level results (2024/2025)
Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025 · what “suppressed” means
Schools with a similar intake
Attainment 8, 2024/2025
On attainment 8, this school is in line with the schools that teach a comparable intake.
They are matched on intake, not location, so most are not local: see nearby schools for those you could apply to.
It is not a ranking. Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025 · how the matching works
Special educational needs
Needs this school records that it caters for, in the order it lists them.
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Provision type: Resourced provision.
- Resourced provision
- 15 of 15 places taken full, or over capacity
Unit places come from the school census and describe the position when it was taken, not today. Confirm with the local authority before relying on them.
Pupils by ethnicity (January 2026)
White British 69% (Cheshire West and Chester 85%, England 59%) · Not recorded 10% (Cheshire West and Chester 2%, England 2%) · Any other White background 5% (Cheshire West and Chester 4%, England 7%) · Any other Asian background 4% (Cheshire West and Chester 1%, England 3%) · Asian Chinese 3% (Cheshire West and Chester 1%, England 1%) · Any other Mixed background 2% (Cheshire West and Chester 1%, England 3%) · Asian Indian 2% (Cheshire West and Chester 1%, England 4%) · Mixed White and Asian 1% (Cheshire West and Chester 1%, England 2%) · Any other ethnic group 1% (Cheshire West and Chester 1%, England 3%) · Black African 1% (Cheshire West and Chester 1%, England 5%) · Mixed White and Black African 1% (Cheshire West and Chester 0%, England 1%) · White Irish 1% (Cheshire West and Chester 0%, England 0%) · other groups together 1%
Source: DfE schools, pupils and their characteristics, January 2026 census · how to read these figures
Attendance (2025/26 autumn and spring terms)
Suspensions and permanent exclusions (2024/25)
12.54 suspensions per 100 pupils and 0 permanent exclusions · England, secondary schools: 21.24 suspensions and 0.23 permanent exclusions per 100 pupils · Cheshire West and Chester: 22.94 suspensions and 0.24 permanent exclusions per 100 pupils
Suspensions and exclusions, last three years Premium
Premium shows the same figures for each of the last three years.
Unlock with SchoolFacts Premium →Source: DfE pupil absence data, autumn and spring terms, and DfE suspensions and permanent exclusions, school-level file · how absence is measured · how to read exclusions
Staffing
Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.
Teacher retention (2024/25)
89% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 11% left the state-funded sector
Vacancies (November 2025)
0% of teaching posts vacant, 5.52% filled temporarily · England, council-maintained secondaries: 0.22% vacant, 0.42% temporary
Teacher sickness absence (reported in the November 2024 census)
56.7% of teachers took sickness absence, 14 days each on average · England, all state-funded schools: 61.8%, 8.1 days
Teacher pay (November 2025)
Mean salary of full-time qualified teachers £55,462; 13% on the leadership pay range · England, secondary schools: £53,766, 11.3%
Vacancies, sickness and pay, last three years Premium
Premium shows the same figures for each of the last three years.
Unlock with SchoolFacts Premium →Source: DfE School Workforce Census · how these figures are counted
Spending per pupil (2025-26)
Where the money went (2025-26)
Share of spending, with the median for secondary schools in brackets: Staff 74% (77%) · premises 4% (6%) · occupation (energy, rates, cleaning) 8% (7%) · supplies and services 9% (10%) · educational supplies 7% (6%) · bought-in professional services 1% (2%) · catering 4% (3%)
Reserves (2025-26)
Revenue reserve £198,354; in-year balance -£48,331
Spending and reserves, last three years Premium
Premium shows the same figures for each of the last three years.
Unlock with SchoolFacts Premium →Higher spending is not a measure of quality. Source: council-maintained school finance return, 2025-26, DfE · how spending is compared
Where pupils go after GCSEs
Where students go after sixth form
Destinations measured the year after leaving, DfE destination measures in the 2024/2025 performance tables.
Inspection history since 2015
- 5 March 2024: Good
- 26 February 2019: Good
Source: Ofsted management information · ungraded visits and the two inspection systems
The area around the school
- Child poverty (IDACI)
- 10/10among the least deprived tenth of England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 9/10among the least deprived fifth of England
| Census 2021 | This area | England |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with a degree or higher | 48% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 10.3% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 49.7% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 11.4% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 52.3% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 77.9% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 8% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 14.1% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 45.4% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 8.4% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 33.7% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 8.6% | 23.5% |
These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Source: Census 2021 (ONS) and English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG) for small area E01018691 · how to read area figures
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £290,000462 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to September 2026
- Typical range
- £155,000–£466,000the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are dearer than most school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.
Source: HM Land Registry sales within 1 km since January 2024 · how sales are counted. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Roads around the school
No collision was reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025.
- Child pedestrian casualties
- 0an urban school averages 2.0
- Collisions at school-run times
- 0an urban school averages 5.7
- All reported collisions
- 0an urban school averages 30.5
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 0an urban school averages 6.1
A high count usually reflects traffic, not an unsafe school. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions within 500 m, 2021–2025 · what is counted