The Archbishop's School
Local authority school · ages 11–18 · Church of England · with a sixth form
Below average on every headline measure — 88th of 100 for average grade in Kent.
Canterbury · Kent · one of 104 state secondaries
Summary
The Archbishop's School sits 88th of 100 state secondaries in Kent for average GCSE grade. 44.4% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 65.1% across Kent. 21.4% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject only religious studies and English Literature sits measurably behind Kent. Ofsted: Good in November 2023.
It is a school of 770 pupils, taking ages 11 to 18 and running its own sixth form. 56.6% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 17.5% are on SEN support with a further 5.6% holding an education, health and care plan. 13.5% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 46.9% entered across Kent, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push. 41% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, worse than the 22.9% across Kent, and 85.3% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Kent, 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·Kent
Inspection
Good
Inspected November 2023
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Quality of education
- Good
- November 2023 Full inspection Good
That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.
Attendance
41% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 23% across Kent and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
After Year 11
85% 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
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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Sixth form · Key stage 5·2024/25
Sixth form
2024/25 · 30 A level students
Ofsted rated sixth-form provision Requires improvement at the last inspection
D+
Average A level resultper entry, DfE grade
below average
Kent C- · England C+
D-
Best three A levelsthe grade a typical offer asks for
8%
AAB or betterat least two in facilitating subjects
in line with average
Kent 11.5% · England 12.8%
93%
Stayed the coursefinished what they started
in line with average
Kent 96.9% · England 95.7%
Applied general qualifications: average result Distinction-, 22 students, 73.7% stayed the course. These are BTECs and similar, graded pass to distinction* rather than A* to E, so the two cannot be compared directly.
A level results by subject
2024/25 · share reaching B or above
After sixth form
Of the 1 student who finished, 45.9% went on to higher education, and 35.1% into work. 81.1% 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.
- Grades not published
- Where a subject was sat by only a few students, the Department for Education publishes how many entered and withholds the grades, so that individual students cannot be identified from the figures. The subject is shown, because the school does teach it, but there is nothing to compare. Most A level groups are small enough for this to apply somewhere on a page.
- 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
St Stephens Hill
Canterbury
Kent
CT2 7AP
- Headteacher
- Mr David Elliott
- Pupils
- 770 of 943 places
- Spare places
- 17%
- Free school meals
- 57%
- SEND
- 18% on SEN support, 6% with an EHC plan
- Progress 8
- Not published · last -0.79 in 2023/24
Other schools in Kent
103 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- The Canterbury Academy 1.9 km
- Barton Court Grammar School 2.3 km
- Barton Manor School 2.9 km
- Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School 3.6 km
- Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys 3.8 km
- St Anselm's Catholic School, Canterbury 3.9 km
- Orion Spires 5.6 km
- The Whitstable School 6.8 km
- Herne Bay High School 8 km
- Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School 12.6 km
- The Abbey School 13.2 km
- Wye School 15.3 km
- Sandwich Technology School 18.5 km
- Towers School and Sixth Form Centre 18.8 km
- Sir Roger Manwood's School 19 km
- King Ethelbert School 19.6 km
- Ursuline College 19.9 km
- The Norton Knatchbull School 20.8 km
- The North School 21.2 km
- Highworth Grammar School 21.3 km
- Dover Christ Church Academy 22.4 km
- The Sittingbourne School 22.5 km
- Hartsdown Academy 22.6 km
- The Royal Harbour Academy 23 km
- Turner Free School 23.2 km
- Folkestone Academy 23.3 km
- Brockhill Park Performing Arts College 23.6 km
- Dover Grammar School for Boys 23.8 km
- Highsted Grammar School 23.8 km
- Fulston Manor School 23.8 km
- The Harvey Grammar School 23.8 km
- Astor Secondary School 23.9 km
- Goodwin Academy 23.9 km
- The John Wallis Church of England Academy 24 km
- St Edmund's Catholic School 24 km
- Dover Grammar School for Girls 24.1 km
- Borden Grammar School 24.1 km
- Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School 24.2 km
- Duke of York's Royal Military School 24.3 km
- St George's Church of England Foundation School 24.4 km
- Leigh Academy Minster 24.4 km
- The Folkestone School for Girls 24.8 km
- Dane Court Grammar School 25.1 km
- The Charles Dickens School 25.3 km
- Chilmington Green School 25.5 km
- Westlands School 25.8 km
- The Lenham School 26 km
- EKC Sheppey Secondary 26.1 km
- The Marsh Academy 35.3 km
- Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre 35.9 km
- School of Science and Technology Maidstone 36.8 km
- Valley Park School 37.2 km
- Invicta Grammar School 37.4 km
- Maidstone Grammar School 37.9 km
- New Line Learning Academy 38 km
- Maidstone Grammar School for Girls 39.1 km
- Cornwallis Academy 39.2 km
- The Maplesden Noakes School 39.3 km
- Oakwood Park Grammar School 40.1 km
- St Augustine Academy 40.1 km
- St Simon Stock Catholic School 40.2 km
- Aylesford School 42.4 km
- Cranbrook School 43.3 km
- The Holmesdale School 44.3 km
- The Malling School 44.5 km
- Thamesview School 49.1 km
- Leigh Academy Mascalls 49.7 km
- St John's Catholic Comprehensive 50.3 km
- Meopham School 50.4 km
- Gravesend Grammar School 50.5 km
- Saint George's Church of England School 51.7 km
- Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend 52.1 km
- Hadlow Rural Community School 52.5 km
- Northfleet Technology College 53 km
- Northfleet School for Girls 53.1 km
- Wrotham School 53.2 km
- Leigh Academy Longfield 54.5 km
- Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet 55.3 km
- Leigh Academy Hugh Christie 55.9 km
- Hillview School for Girls 56.3 km
- Alkerden Church of England Academy 56.4 km
- Weald of Kent Grammar School 56.6 km
- Skinners' Kent Academy 57 km
- Tonbridge Grammar School 57 km
- The Judd School 57.6 km
- Leigh Academy Tonbridge 57.8 km
- Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys 58.8 km
- St Gregory's Catholic School 58.9 km
- The Skinners' School 59.1 km
- Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School 59.2 km
- Stone Lodge School 59.8 km
- Bennett Memorial Diocesan School 59.9 km
- Trinity School 60.2 km
- Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy 60.3 km
- Leigh UTC Dartford 61.8 km
- Knole Academy 61.9 km
- Dartford Science & Technology College 62.6 km
- Dartford Grammar School 62.6 km
- Dartford Grammar School for Girls 62.6 km
- Wilmington Grammar School for Boys 62.9 km
- Leigh Academy Wilmington 63 km
- Wilmington Grammar School for Girls 63 km
- Orchards Academy 63.8 km