Townsend Church of England School
Secondary · St Albans · AL3 6DR
Data updated
Earlier grade, confirmed by a later ungraded inspection
Ofsted's most recent (ungraded) visit confirmed the school remains Good. Ungraded inspections do not award a new grade.
Inspected 24 January 2024
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
746 pupils · 87% of 853 capacity (January 2026 census)
- School type
- Voluntary aided school
- Age range
- 11–18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- Church of England
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 26.4% of pupils (January 2026)
- English as additional language
- 20.1% of pupils (2024/2025)
- SEN support
- 22.9% of pupils (2024/2025)
- EHC plan
- 2.9% of pupils (2024/2025)
- Sixth form
- Yes
- URN
- 117555
In figures
For September 2026 entry, 80 families named it first for 168 Year 7 places, 0.48 first choices per place. We hold 12 Year 7 admissions rounds for it, 2015 to 2026; none was decided by a published distance. An ungraded Ofsted inspection on 24 January 2024 confirmed its earlier grade, Good. In the 2025/26 autumn and spring terms its pupils missed 10.9% of sessions, against 6.6% across England.
Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026
0.48 first-choice applications per place168 places offered · 80 first-choice applications · usually has places
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. The council did not publish a cutoff distance for 2026 entry.
Admissions cutoff distance: Year 7
The council did not publish a cutoff distance for 2026 entry.
Source: the admissions authority's published figures · how cutoffs work
Compare admissions across the area: St Albans school admissions · Hertfordshire school admissions
GCSE results (2024/2025)
137 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
Pupils by ethnicity (January 2026)
White British 48% (Hertfordshire 60%, England 59%) · Black African 13% (Hertfordshire 4%, England 5%) · Any other White background 10% (Hertfordshire 9%, England 7%) · Black Caribbean 5% (Hertfordshire 1%, England 1%) · Mixed White and Asian 3% (Hertfordshire 3%, England 2%) · Mixed White and Black Caribbean 3% (Hertfordshire 2%, England 2%) · Asian Indian 3% (Hertfordshire 4%, England 4%) · Any other Asian background 2% (Hertfordshire 3%, England 3%) · Asian Pakistani 2% (Hertfordshire 2%, England 5%) · Any other Mixed background 2% (Hertfordshire 3%, England 3%) · Mixed White and Black African 2% (Hertfordshire 1%, England 1%) · Any other Black background 2% (Hertfordshire 1%, England 1%) · Any other ethnic group 1% (Hertfordshire 2%, England 3%) · Asian Bangladeshi 1% (Hertfordshire 1%, England 2%) · Asian Chinese 1% (Hertfordshire 2%, England 1%) · Not recorded 1% (Hertfordshire 1%, England 2%)
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)
42.46 suspensions per 100 pupils and 4 permanent exclusions · England, secondary schools: 21.24 suspensions and 0.23 permanent exclusions per 100 pupils · Hertfordshire: 13.41 suspensions and 0.12 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)
87% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 5% moved to another state school · 8% left the state-funded sector
Vacancies (November 2025)
0% of teaching posts vacant, 0% filled temporarily · England, council-maintained secondaries: 0.22% vacant, 0.42% temporary
Teacher sickness absence (reported in the November 2024 census)
76.7% of teachers took sickness absence, 9.9 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 £56,533; 11.9% 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 79% (77%) · premises 5% (6%) · occupation (energy, rates, cleaning) 7% (7%) · supplies and services 9% (10%) · educational supplies 6% (6%) · bought-in professional services 2% (2%) · catering 4% (3%)
Reserves (2025-26)
Revenue reserve £684,405; in-year balance -£251,460
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
- 23 January 2024: School remains Good
- 15 May 2018: School remains Good
Source: Ofsted management information · ungraded visits and the two inspection systems
The area around the school
- Child poverty (IDACI)
- 6/10around the middle for England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 6/10around the middle for England
| Census 2021 | This area | England |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with a degree or higher | 37.9% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 17.9% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 38.1% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 21.3% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 51.6% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 60.5% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 32.1% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 7.1% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 9.4% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 15.4% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 21.4% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 16.1% | 23.5% |
These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Source: Census 2021 (ONS) and English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG) for small area E01023671 · how to read area figures
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £630,00067 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to September 2026
- Typical range
- £552,500–£762,500the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are among the dearest tenth of 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