Local authority · North West
Blackburn with Darwen has 20 secondary schools in this dataset — 13 state-funded and 7 independent. 10 have a religious character; 12 have a sixth form.
The typical school here posts a three-year Progress 8 of -0.10 (average) — 0.09 of a grade per subject below the national median of -0.01. That is the middle of the 11 schools in this area with a published score.
The spread inside the area is wider than the gap between areas: from -0.87 to +2.03. Which school a child goes to matters more here than which area you move to.
For 2026 entry the typical school here drew 0.90 first preferences per place — less pressure than the national median of 0.95×. 5 of the 11 schools with published figures were named first by more families than they had places for. A high figure means popular, not good, and it is not your chance of a place — that depends on where you live.
Overall absence runs at 9.1% for the typical school here, above the national median of 8.7%. Absence is a plainer signal of whether pupils are turning up and engaged than any grade average.
Ordered on the three-year average Progress 8, which is steadier than any single year. Read the confidence interval beside each score before you read the order: it is the range the school's true figure is likely to sit in, and a wide one means a small year group rather than an unpredictable school.
| School | Progress 8 | 95% interval | Attainment 8 | Pressure | Ofsted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tauheedul Islam Girls' High SchoolAcademy converter | +2.03well above average | +1.80 to +2.302023–24 | 71.2 | 2.08× | Outstanding |
| 2 | Tauheedul Islam Boys' High SchoolFree schools | +1.13well above average | +1.01 to +1.522023–24 | 60.0 | 2.03× | Outstanding |
| 3 | St Wilfrid's Church of England AcademyAcademy converter | +0.18average | +0.01 to +0.362023–24 | 51.4 | 1.16× | Good (ungraded) |
| 4 | Pleckgate High SchoolAcademy sponsor led | +0.08average | -0.19 to +0.172023–24 | 45.8 | 1.06× | Outstanding |
| 5 | St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, BlackburnVoluntary aided school | -0.10average | -0.44 to -0.062023–24 | 46.6 | 1.27× | — |
| 6 | Queen Elizabeth's Grammar SchoolFree schools | -0.10average | -0.47 to +0.032023–24 | 48.7 | 0.75× | Good |
| 7 | Darwen Vale High SchoolAcademy sponsor led | -0.22below average | -0.50 to -0.082023–24 | 43.5 | 0.90× | Good |
| 8 | Blackburn Central High SchoolAcademy converter | -0.24below average | -0.42 to +0.032023–24 | 42.0 | 0.76× | Good (ungraded) |
| 9 | Witton Park AcademyAcademy converter | -0.44below average | -0.90 to -0.502023–24 | 39.8 | 0.31× | Needs attention (achievement) |
| 10 | Darwen Aldridge Community AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.70well below average | -0.97 to -0.582023–24 | 38.7 | 0.88× | — |
| 11 | Darwen Aldridge Enterprise StudioStudio schools | -0.87well below average | -1.17 to -0.482023–24 | 35.3 | — | Expected standard (achievement) |
0 of the 10 other schools ranked here have a confidence interval that overlaps Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School's. On these figures they cannot be told apart from the school at the top of the table, and the order between them is not a finding. 3 schools here have an interval that includes zero (shaded above) — those cannot be told apart from an average school nationally.
These are not bottom of the table — they are not in it. A school with no published score has not done badly; the measure was not calculated for it, and the reason differs.
| Al Islah Girls' High School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
|---|---|
| Blackburn College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| Islamiyah School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Jamiatul-Ilm Wal-Huda UK School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Markazul Uloom | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Noorul Uloom | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Our Lady and St John RC High School, a Voluntary Academy | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| Rawdhatul Ilm Wal Huda | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Westholme School | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
The most sought-after school in Blackburn with Darwen for 2026 entry was Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School at 2.08 first preferences per place — 250 families named it first for 120 places.
Pressure is not a chance of admission. A school with two applicants per place can still admit every family living near it, while a less popular school further away turns you down. Distance from the gate is usually what decides it, and no national figure can tell you that for your own address.
See Blackburn with Darwen on the map →The same schools on a map, with every filter: results, admissions pressure, Ofsted, faith and selection — or sorted by distance from your own postcode.Admissions do not stop at an authority line. If you live near one, your realistic list of schools spans both sides of it.
The results here are for 2023–24 and earlier, so they describe pupils who have already left. Nothing on this page covers sixth-form results, pastoral care, music, sport or drama, or how a school feels to walk around — which is what parents most often say settled it. The ranking is a starting point for a shortlist, not a verdict on a school.
Nor is it a prediction of a place. Admission depends on each school's criteria and, most often, on how far you live from it — and in Blackburn with Darwen you apply for a state-funded place through the council's coordinated scheme, naming several schools in order of preference.