The Banovallum School
Academy · ages 11–16 · no sixth form
Below average on 2 of the four headline measures — 26th of 54 for average grade in Lincolnshire.
Horncastle · Lincolnshire · one of 54 state secondaries
Summary
The Banovallum School sits 26th of 54 state secondaries in Lincolnshire for average GCSE grade. 62% of its pupils passed both English and maths, in line with the 62.9% managed across Lincolnshire. 28.7% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject only religious studies and history sits measurably behind Lincolnshire. Ofsted: Good in December 2017, confirmed in March 2023.
It is an academy of 621 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 33.2% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 27.8% are on SEN support with a further 3.7% holding an education, health and care plan. 18.5% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 37.2% entered across Lincolnshire, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 14.8% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 25.6% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, worse than the 23.4% across Lincolnshire, and 82.9% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Lincolnshire, 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·Lincolnshire
Inspection
Good
Last inspected March 2023
The grade itself is 8 years old.
- March 2023 Ungraded inspection School remains Good
- December 2017 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
26% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 23% across Lincolnshire and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
62%
Passed English & maths grade 4+, an old grade C
in line with average
Lincolnshire 63% · England 65%
41.9
Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90
in line with average
Lincolnshire 45.1 · England 46.1
19%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
well below average
Lincolnshire 37% · England 41%
After Year 11
83% stayed in education, 6% 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.
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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
Boston Road
Horncastle
Lincolnshire
LN9 6DA
- Headteacher
- Mrs Jennifer Kirkwood
- Trust
- Horncastle Education Trust
- Pupils
- 621 of 625 places
- Spare places
- 3%
- Free school meals
- 33%
- SEND
- 28% on SEN support, 4% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 15% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last +0.04 in 2023/24
Other schools in Lincolnshire
53 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle 1.1 km
- The Barnes Wallis Academy 11.7 km
- King Edward VI Academy 13.8 km
- William Lovell Church of England Academy 14.5 km
- King Edward VI Grammar School 19.1 km
- Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Alford - A Selective Academy 19.7 km
- Louth Academy 19.7 km
- John Spendluffe Foundation Technology College 20.4 km
- Branston Community Academy 23.7 km
- The Priory Pembroke Academy 23.7 km
- The Giles Academy 23.7 km
- Haven High Academy 24.6 km
- De Aston School 24.7 km
- Boston High School 24.7 km
- The Boston Grammar School 26.1 km
- William Farr CofE Comprehensive School 27.1 km
- Lincoln Christ's Hospital School 27.7 km
- Lincoln UTC 28.5 km
- Lincoln Castle Academy 29 km
- The Priory Academy LSST 29.1 km
- Skegness Academy 29.9 km
- Carre's Grammar School 30 km
- Skegness Grammar School 30.2 km
- St George's Academy 30.3 km
- St Peter and St Paul, Catholic Voluntary Academy 30.3 km
- Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy 30.5 km
- The Priory Witham Academy 30.7 km
- The Priory City of Lincoln Academy 30.9 km
- Thomas Middlecott Academy 31.2 km
- Somercotes Academy 31.7 km
- Sir Robert Pattinson Academy 32.2 km
- North Kesteven Academy 32.5 km
- Cowley Academy 33.6 km
- Sir William Robertson Academy, Welbourn 34 km
- Caistor Yarborough Academy 35.4 km
- Caistor Grammar School 35.5 km
- University Academy Holbeach 44.6 km
- Spalding Academy 46.4 km
- Spalding High School 46.7 km
- Spalding Grammar School 46.7 km
- The Priory Ruskin Academy 47.3 km
- Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School 47.6 km
- The King's School, Grantham 47.8 km
- University Academy Long Sutton 48.2 km
- The Gainsborough Academy 48.7 km
- West Grantham Church of England Secondary Academy 49.4 km
- Walton Academy 49.9 km
- The Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough 50.1 km
- Bourne Academy 50.8 km
- Charles Read Academy 51.4 km
- Bourne Grammar School 52.1 km
- The Deepings School 60 km
- Stamford Welland Academy 65.3 km