Darwen Vale High School
Secondary · Darwen · BB3 0AL
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 30 January 2024
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
1,039 pupils · 87% of 1,200 capacity
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Age range
- 11–16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 31.6% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 4.8% of pupils
- SEN support
- 18.9% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 1.7% of pupils
- Website
- www.darwenvale.com
- URN
- 141321
Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026
0.90 first-choice applications per place233 places offered · 209 first-choice applications · roughly balanced
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)
218 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.
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)
75% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 15% moved to another state school · 10% 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
Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.
Inspection history since 2015
- 30 January 2024: Good
- 22 September 2022: Leaders and those responsible for governance are taking effective action in order for the school to become a good school
- 16 March 2021: Requires Improvement monitoring Visit 1
- 3 March 2020: Requires improvement
- 15 November 2017: Requires improvement
Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.
Nearby schools
- Lower Darwen Primary School
- St Edward's RC Primary School, a Voluntary Academy
- St James' Church of England Primary School
- Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Roman Catholic Primary School Blackburn
- St Cuthbert's Church of England Primary School
- Darwen St James CofE Primary Academy
- Avondale Primary School
- Crosshill Special School