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.
Admissions cutoff distance: Year 7
Last child offered a place under the distance criterion (2026 entry) lived within 2.431 miles
measured in a straight line.
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Cutoff distances as published by the local authority. Siblings and other priority groups are offered places first; cutoffs move year to year.
Compare admissions across the area: Darwen school admissions · Blackburn with Darwen school admissions
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.
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.
The twelve below are matched on intake alone, from every state school in England, so most are not local. They are the evidence behind the comparison above, not a shortlist. For schools you could realistically apply to, see nearby schools.
| School | Ofsted | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|
| Ashington Academy | 47.1 | |
| Woodham Academy | 48.2 | |
| Hartshill Academy | 41 | |
| Whitworth Park Academy | 50.4 | |
| Whitcliffe Mount, A Share Academy | 42.7 | |
| Ormiston Horizon Academy | 37.3 | |
| Wadebridge School | 44.7 | |
| West Hill School | 43.5 | |
| The Wilnecote School | 38.7 | |
| Wingfield Academy | 47 | |
| Hall Park Academy | 43 | |
| The Excel Academy | 37.5 |
The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one: same phase and admissions type, and as near as the data allows on size, free school meals, English as an additional language, SEN and the child poverty of the surrounding area (IDACI 2025). 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 plain geography all matter and are not in the calculation. Results: DfE performance tables, 2024/2025. How the matching works.
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.
The area around the school
- Child poverty (IDACI)
- 4/10more deprived than most of England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 2/10among the most deprived fifth of England
English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.
| Census 2021 | This area | England |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with a degree or higher | 20.4% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 26.9% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 20.8% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 32.3% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 41.4% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 51% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 37.5% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 11.5% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 17% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 32% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 11.2% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 36% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01012591 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,284 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £183,000184 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £145,000–£250,000the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are cheaper than three quarters of school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.
Inside the Year 7 cutoff distance (3.91 km, 2026 entry): 3,108 sales, median £155,000. The homes that would have got a child in that year, at the straight-line distance the school last filled to.
Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. 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
- Child pedestrian casualties
- 0an urban school averages 2.0
- Collisions at school-run times
- 1an urban school averages 5.8
- All reported collisions
- 8an urban school averages 30.6
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 4an urban school averages 6.1
Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. 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, which is why the comparison is with other urban schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.
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