Birchwood High School
Secondary · Bishop's Stortford · CM23 5BD
Not yet graded
No graded inspection outcome is available for this school under either the current or the previous framework. This is common for recently opened or converted schools.
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
1,417 pupils · 94% of 1,500 capacity
- School type
- Academy converter
- Age range
- 11–18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 18.2% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 12.6% of pupils
- SEN support
- 9.6% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 3.3% of pupils
- Sixth form
- Yes
- URN
- 137637
Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026
0.55 first-choice applications per place174 places offered · 96 first-choice applications · usually has places
First-choice applications per place, by entry year
Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE. A ratio above 1.00 means more families named this school first choice than there were places.
GCSE results (2024/2025)
243 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. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts.
Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)
Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.
Staffing
Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.
Teacher retention (2024/25)
84% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 9% moved to another state school · 7% left the state-funded sector
School Workforce Census, DfE. The ratio counts full-time-equivalent qualified teachers; retention follows teachers in post one November to the next. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Spending per pupil
Total expenditure ÷ pupils, academy finance return (DfE Schools Financial Benchmarking, latest year). Higher spending is not a measure of quality. It often reflects greater pupil need or a smaller school. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Where pupils go after GCSEs
Where students go after sixth form
Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.
Inspection history since 2015
- 21 January 2025: S5 Inspection
- 27 June 2019: Good
- 23 May 2018: Taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement
- 9 May 2017: Requires improvement
- 15 January 2016: Taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement
Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.
Nearby schools
- Summercroft Primary School
- All Saints Church of England Primary School and Nursery, Bishop's Stortford
- Hockerill Anglo-European College
- The Hertfordshire & Essex High School and Science College
- Thorn Grove Primary School
- Birchanger Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School
- White Trees Independent School
- Windhill21