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St Helena School

Academy · ages 11–16 · no sixth form

In line with Essex across the board — 31st of 79 for average grade in Essex.

Colchester · Essex · one of 81 state secondaries

How we read the data

Summary

St Helena School sits 31st of 79 state secondaries in Essex for average GCSE grade. 60.3% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 63.7% across Essex. 36.3% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Essex in photography, sat by 11% of the year, and food technology, sat by 20% of the year,, with nothing measurably behind. Ofsted: Good in January 2024.

It is an academy of 986 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 33.5% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 7.8% are on SEN support with a further 2% holding an education, health and care plan. 41.7% were entered for the full EBacc, more than the 38.8% entered across Essex, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 14.7% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 19.4% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, better than the 21.1% across Essex, and 86.8% of its leavers went on to further education.

Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Essex, 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·Essex

Inspection

Good

Inspected January 2024

Behaviour and attitudes
Good
Leadership and management
Outstanding
Personal development
Good
Quality of education
Good
  • January 2024 Full inspection Good

That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.

Read the Ofsted report

Attendance

19% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 21% across Essex and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.

GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25

Attainment

60%

Passed English & maths grade 4+, an old grade C

in line with average

Essex 64% · England 65%

36%

Strong pass in both grade 5+, a strong pass

in line with average

Essex 43% · England 45%

46

Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90

in line with average

Essex 45.1 · England 46.1

42%

Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects

in line with average

Essex 39% · England 41%

After Year 11

87% stayed in education, 1% 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

this school Essex England

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

Sheepen Road
Colchester
Essex
CO3 3LE

01206 572253 st-helena.essex.sch.uk
Headteacher
Mrs Serena Kay
Trust
The Sigma Trust
Pupils
986 of 1,000 places
Spare places
1%
Free school meals
34%
SEND
8% on SEN support, 2% with an EHC plan
Separate sciences
15% of the year
Progress 8
Not published · last -0.31 in 2023/24

Other schools in Essex

80 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.

Tutorperch School report by Tutorperch
Covers state-funded schools in England; independent schools are not included. The four figures at the top compare against the Department for Education's national release, which counts special schools and alternative provision as well, so it sits slightly below the average of the schools listed on this site. Subject comparisons are pooled from those schools directly.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Key stage 4 performance, school characteristics, absence and destinations: Department for Education, 2024/25. Inspection outcomes: Ofsted. Persistent absence comparators are the median secondary school.