Thornden School
Academy · ages 11–16 · no sixth form
Above average on every headline measure — 1st of 68 for average grade in Hampshire.
Eastleigh · Hampshire · one of 69 state secondaries
Summary
Thornden School sits 1st of 68 state secondaries in Hampshire for average GCSE grade. 87.6% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 65.1% across Hampshire. 72.8% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Hampshire in combined science and geography, with nothing measurably behind. Ofsted: Inspected in June 2026 under the current report card, which grades 7 areas separately and gives no overall word.
It is an academy of 1,440 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 6.5% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a low share, and 4.5% are on SEN support with a further 2.1% holding an education, health and care plan. 57.6% were entered for the full EBacc, more than the 33.6% entered across Hampshire, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 26.6% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 9.8% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, better than the 20.9% across Hampshire, and 95.2% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Hampshire, 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·Hampshire
Inspection
Graded by area
Last inspected June 2026
- Achievement
- Exceptional
- Attendance and behaviour
- Strong standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Strong standard
- Inclusion
- Strong standard
- Leadership and management
- Strong standard
- Personal development
- Strong standard
- Safeguarding
- Met
- June 2026 Report card inspection Graded by area
- June 2022 Full inspection Good
Ofsted’s current report card grades each area separately and gives no overall word.
Attendance
10% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 21% across Hampshire and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
59.9
Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90
well above average
Hampshire 45.5 · England 46.1
58%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
well above average
Hampshire 34% · England 41%
After Year 11
95% 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.
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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
Winchester Road
Chandler's Ford
Eastleigh
Hampshire
SO53 2DW
- Headteacher
- Ms Caroline Lowing
- Trust
- Hisp Multi Academy Trust LTD
- Pupils
- 1,440 of 1,450 places
- Spare places
- None
- Free school meals
- 7%
- SEND
- 5% on SEN support, 2% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 27% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last +0.74 in 2023/24
Other schools in Hampshire
68 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- The Toynbee School 1.9 km
- Crestwood Community School 1.9 km
- Wyvern College 5.9 km
- Kings' School 7.3 km
- The Mountbatten School 7.5 km
- The Westgate School 8.5 km
- Wildern School 9.5 km
- Deer Park School 9.5 km
- The Romsey School 9.7 km
- Henry Beaufort School 9.9 km
- Testwood School 11.9 km
- Hounsdown School 13.5 km
- Swanmore College 13.6 km
- The Hamble School 13.7 km
- Brookfield Community School 15.3 km
- Applemore College 15.5 km
- Noadswood School 15.5 km
- Danebury School 16.4 km
- Perins School 17.3 km
- Lift New Forest 17.6 km
- The Henry Cort Community College 17.8 km
- Fareham Academy 20.2 km
- Cams Hill School 21.5 km
- Crofton School 22.1 km
- Bridgemary School 23.1 km
- Portchester Community School 23.7 km
- Lift Winton 25 km
- King's Academy Brune Park 25 km
- John Hanson Community School 25.4 km
- Testbourne Community School 25.8 km
- The Cowplain School 26.3 km
- Horndean Technology College 26.4 km
- Harrow Way Community School 26.5 km
- King's Academy Bay House 27 km
- Purbrook Park School 27.1 km
- Crookhorn College 27.7 km
- Oaklands Catholic School 27.7 km
- Park Community School 28.9 km
- The Petersfield School 29.6 km
- Priestlands School 30 km
- The Burgate School and Sixth Form 30.4 km
- Havant Academy 30.5 km
- Warblington School 31.8 km
- Amery Hill School 32.2 km
- Brighton Hill Community School 33 km
- Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School 33.6 km
- The Blue Coat School Basingstoke 33.6 km
- Ringwood School Academy 33.7 km
- Eggar's School 33.7 km
- Cranbourne 34.4 km
- The Arnewood School 34.4 km
- The Hayling College 35 km
- The Costello School 35.7 km
- The Vyne Community School 36.5 km
- Everest Community Academy 37.3 km
- Oakmoor School 38.2 km
- The Clere School 39.6 km
- Bohunt School 40 km
- Robert May's School 40.6 km
- The Hurst School 42.5 km
- Calthorpe Park School 47.1 km
- Court Moor School 47.4 km
- Alderwood School 51.6 km
- The Wavell School 52.5 km
- Yateley School 53 km
- Cove School 53 km
- Frogmore Community College 54 km
- Bohunt Farnborough 54.7 km