Sale High School
Academy · ages 11–16 · no sixth form
Below average on 3 of the four headline measures — 11th of 19 for average grade in Trafford.
Sale · Trafford · one of 19 state secondaries
Summary
Sale High School sits 11th of 19 state secondaries in Trafford for average GCSE grade. 67.5% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 79.2% across Trafford. 46.3% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject only religious studies and English Language sits measurably behind Trafford. Ofsted: Good in June 2015, confirmed in December 2024.
It is an academy of 1,103 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 21.5% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 11.8% are on SEN support with a further 3.9% holding an education, health and care plan. 50.2% were entered for the full EBacc, about the same as Trafford, and 26.1% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 87.9% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Trafford, 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·Trafford
Inspection
Good
Last inspected December 2024
The grade itself is 11 years old.
- December 2024 Ungraded inspection Standards maintained
- June 2015 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.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Sale High School converted to an academy in October 2025 and was given a new reference number. The Department for Education files results against the record a school held when its pupils sat their exams, so these are published under its previous one.
Attainment
50%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
in line with average
Trafford 50% · England 41%
After Year 11
88% stayed in education, 2% 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.
Maths is the subject most of this year group sat. Maths 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.
School details
Norris Road
Sale
Cheshire
M33 3JR
- Headteacher
- Mr Adam Rogers
- Trust
- United Learning Trust
- Pupils
- 1,103
- Free school meals
- 22%
- SEND
- 12% on SEN support, 4% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 26% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last -0.14 in 2023/24
Other schools in Trafford
18 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- Sale Grammar School 0.8 km
- Ashton-on-Mersey School 2.4 km
- Wellington School 3 km
- Stretford Grammar School 3.3 km
- Altrincham College 3.6 km
- Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College 3.8 km
- Loreto Grammar School 4.5 km
- North Cestrian School 4.5 km
- St Antony's Roman Catholic School, a Voluntary Academy 4.5 km
- Lostock High School 4.8 km
- Stretford High School 4.8 km
- Saint Ambrose College 5 km
- Altrincham Grammar School for Boys 5.2 km
- Altrincham Grammar School for Girls 5.2 km
- Urmston Grammar Academy 5.5 km
- Flixton Girls School 5.9 km
- Wellacre Technology Academy 7 km
- Broadoak School 8.3 km