Aylsham High School
Local authority school · ages 11–16 · no sixth form
Above average on 1 of the four headline measures — 30th of 53 for average grade in Norfolk.
Norwich · Norfolk · one of 53 state secondaries
Summary
Aylsham High School sits 30th of 53 state secondaries in Norfolk for average GCSE grade. 64.4% of its pupils passed both English and maths, in line with the 65.3% managed across Norfolk. 41.1% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Norfolk in French and computer science, sat by 9% of the year,, and furthest behind in religious studies and drama, sat by 17% of the year. Ofsted: Good in October 2014, confirmed in January 2024.
It is a school of 1,138 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 19.7% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 27.2% are on SEN support with a further 4.5% holding an education, health and care plan. 68.3% were entered for the full EBacc, more than the 43.3% entered across Norfolk, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 29.7% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 22.1% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, about the same as Norfolk, and 83.9% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Norfolk, and count as ahead or behind only where the gap is wider than the year-to-year swing that entry group would produce.
The school·Norfolk
Inspection
Good
Last inspected January 2024
The grade itself is 11 years old.
- January 2024 Ungraded inspection School remains Good
- October 2014 Full inspection Good
An ungraded inspection checks whether the existing grade still holds rather than replacing it.
That grade was given under the framework Ofsted used before September 2019.
Attendance
22% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 22% across Norfolk and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
68%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
well above average
Norfolk 43% · England 41%
After Year 11
84% stayed in education, 5% started an apprenticeship (2022/23 leavers)
GCSE results by subject
2024/25 · share reaching grade 4 or above · a standard pass, the old grade C
Every bar is on the same 0–100% scale, so subjects can be read against each other as well as against the county and England. A dash means the figure does not exist rather than being zero. The county and England lines cover state-funded schools only, the same schools you can browse here, because independent schools sit outside the Department for Education's subject release and outside this site.
Compare these subjects against another school, side by side.
English Language is the subject most of this year group sat. English Language tutors on Tutorperch.
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What these mean
- Attainment 8
- The average pupil's total score across eight GCSE-equivalent subjects, with English and maths counting double. It is scored out of 90. A score of 50 is roughly equivalent to achieving a grade 5 across eight subjects.
- Grades 4 and 5
- GCSEs are graded from 9 down to 1. Grade 4 is a standard pass and broadly corresponds to the old grade C; grade 5 is what the government calls a strong pass. Grade 7 is broadly equivalent to an old grade A.
- The EBacc
- A combination of subjects rather than a qualification in its own right: English, Maths, the Sciences, a Language, and History or Geography. The figure shows the share of pupils entered for all the EBacc subject areas, so it gives an indication of how widely a school enters pupils for this particular combination of subjects.
- Progress 8
- A measure of how much progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of GCSE, rather than simply what grades they achieve. It takes pupils' prior attainment into account, making it useful for comparing schools with different intakes. Progress 8 is not published for 2024/25 because the pupils concerned did not have Key Stage 2 tests that can be used as the normal starting point.
- Percentage points
- The gap between two percentages. A subject going from 30% to 36% has risen six percentage points, though it has risen by a fifth. We write "pp" to keep the two apart.
- Why some subjects say nothing
- A year group is small. Where a gap is no bigger than the swing a different intake would produce, we say the subjects are level rather than dressing chance as a finding. Two kinds of subject carry no share at all: a vocational award has no 9-to-1 grade to report, and some qualifications are not published on the 9-to-1 scale for a given year group, most often community languages sat outside the school's own timetable.
- Persistent absence
- The share of pupils who miss at least 10% of their possible sessions during the school year. This includes both authorised and unauthorised absence, so illness and other authorised reasons are included. Persistent absence has remained substantially higher than its pre-pandemic level.
- Spare places
- The amount of available capacity a school has compared with the number of pupils on roll. This is different from oversubscription: spare places measure whether a school has capacity, whereas oversubscription describes demand for places exceeding the number available. A school with no spare places may be popular, but a small school can also be full without receiving a large number of applications.
School details
Sir Williams Lane
Aylsham
Norwich
Norfolk
NR11 6AN
- Headteacher
- Mr Duncan Spalding
- Trust
- The Aylsham Cluster Trust
- Pupils
- 1,138 of 1,062 places
- Spare places
- None
- Free school meals
- 20%
- SEND
- 27% on SEN support, 5% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 30% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last +0.21 in 2023/24
Other schools in Norfolk
52 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- North Walsham High School 9.3 km
- Reepham High School and College 11.1 km
- Taverham High School 13.2 km
- Broadland High Ormiston Academy 13.7 km
- Cromer Academy 14.4 km
- Hellesdon High School 15.1 km
- Sheringham High School 16.1 km
- Ormiston Victory Academy 16.6 km
- Sprowston Community Academy 16.7 km
- Sewell Park Academy 16.8 km
- The Open Academy 17.5 km
- Stalham High School 17.6 km
- Jane Austen College 18.4 km
- City Academy Norwich 18.8 km
- Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form 19 km
- Notre Dame High School, Norwich 19.5 km
- Hewett Academy 20.4 km
- City of Norwich School, An Ormiston Academy 20.5 km
- University Technical College Norfolk 22 km
- Hethersett Academy 22.5 km
- Dereham Neatherd High School 24.2 km
- Northgate High School 24.5 km
- Framingham Earl High School 24.6 km
- Acle Academy 25.7 km
- Wymondham High Academy 26.4 km
- Flegg High Ormiston Academy 27.3 km
- Fakenham Academy 28.3 km
- Wymondham College 31.1 km
- Alderman Peel High School 32.2 km
- Litcham School 32.4 km
- Hobart High School 32.9 km
- Long Stratton High School 34.2 km
- Attleborough Academy 34.8 km
- Caister Academy 35.3 km
- Old Buckenham High School 37.6 km
- Great Yarmouth Charter Academy 37.7 km
- Lynn Grove Academy 38.5 km
- Wayland Academy 38.9 km
- Ormiston Venture Academy 39.5 km
- Cliff Park Ormiston Academy 40.7 km
- The Nicholas Hamond Academy 42.2 km
- The Harleston Sancroft Academy (a 3-16 Church of England School) 44.3 km
- Diss High School 47.3 km
- The Thetford Academy 53.2 km
- Smithdon High School 53.5 km
- Springwood High School 55.7 km
- Iceni Secondary Academy 56.1 km
- King's Lynn Academy 56.9 km
- King Edward VII Academy 57.1 km
- Downham Market Academy 62.4 km
- St Clement's High School 64.8 km
- Marshland High School 73.1 km