Falmouth School
Academy · ages 11–18 · with a sixth form
In line with Cornwall across the board — 7th of 31 for average grade in Cornwall.
Falmouth · Cornwall · one of 31 state secondaries
Summary
Falmouth School sits 7th of 31 state secondaries in Cornwall for average GCSE grade. 69.9% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 63.8% across Cornwall. 46.6% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Cornwall in history and photography, sat by 16% of the year,, with nothing measurably behind. Ofsted: Inspected in April 2025, after Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall grade.
It is an academy of 923 pupils, taking ages 11 to 18 and running its own sixth form. 22.8% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 16.4% are on SEN support with a further 4.1% holding an education, health and care plan. 24.7% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 28% entered across Cornwall, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 29.5% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 28.9% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, worse than the 24.3% across Cornwall, and 76.9% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Cornwall, 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·Cornwall
Inspection
Graded by area
Inspected April 2025
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Quality of education
- Good
- April 2025 Full inspection
Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall grade in September 2024.
Attendance
29% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 24% across Cornwall and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
48.3
Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90
in line with average
Cornwall 45.2 · England 46.1
25%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
in line with average
Cornwall 28% · England 41%
After Year 11
77% stayed in education, 8% 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 Literature is the subject most of this year group sat. English Literature tutors on Tutorperch.
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Sixth form · Key stage 5·2024/25
Sixth form
2024/25 · 7 A level students
Ofsted rated sixth-form provision Good at the last inspection
E
Average A level resultper entry, DfE grade
below average
Cornwall C+ · England C+
83%
Stayed the coursefinished what they started
in line with average
Cornwall 93% · England 95.7%
Applied general qualifications: average result Merit+, 28 students, 97.1% stayed the course. These are BTECs and similar, graded pass to distinction* rather than A* to E, so the two cannot be compared directly.
After sixth form
Of the 8 students who finished, , and 50% into work. 50% were in a sustained destination of some kind six months later.
Destinations are for 2022/23 leavers, the most recent DfE has published. The results above are 2024/25.
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.
- Average A-level grade
- The average grade achieved across students' A-level entries. This is different from measures such as the proportion achieving AAB or better in two or more facilitating subjects, which are sometimes used to indicate higher attainment and university-entry performance.
School details
Trescobeas Road
Falmouth
Cornwall
TR11 4LH
- Headteacher
- Mrs Joanne Guest
- Trust
- The Roseland Multi Academy Trust
- Pupils
- 923 of 1,418 places
- Spare places
- 38%
- Free school meals
- 23%
- SEND
- 16% on SEN support, 4% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 30% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last -0.08 in 2023/24
Other schools in Cornwall
30 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- Penryn College 1.7 km
- Richard Lander School 11.3 km
- Penair School 13 km
- Redruth School 13.3 km
- Helston Community College 13.9 km
- Pool Academy 14.8 km
- Camborne Science and International Academy 16.7 km
- Mullion School 17.9 km
- The Roseland Academy 18.4 km
- Hayle Academy 22.7 km
- Brannel School 24.8 km
- St Ives School 27.9 km
- Newquay Tretherras 28.9 km
- Treviglas Academy 29.3 km
- Poltair School 30.1 km
- Penrice Academy 30.6 km
- Humphry Davy School 32 km
- Mounts Bay Academy 33 km
- Fowey River Academy 37.6 km
- Cape Cornwall School 42.4 km
- Bodmin College 43.2 km
- Wadebridge School 44.7 km
- Looe Community Academy 51.3 km
- Liskeard School and Community College 55.9 km
- Sir James Smith's School 59.2 km
- Torpoint Community College 67.7 km
- Saltash Community School 67.8 km
- Callington Community College 67.8 km
- Launceston College 74.1 km
- Budehaven Community School 84.1 km