Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School

State-fundedVoluntary aided school · Liverpool · L12 9HZ · Boys only · Roman Catholic

Secondary with sixth form · ages 11–18

Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School is a state-funded school in Liverpool, teaching pupils aged 11 to 18. It admits boys only. It has a religious character (Roman Catholic).

GCSE results

Percentiles rank the school against every school in England with a published score.
2023–242022–232021–223-year average
Progress 8-0.4120th percentile-0.5712th percentile-0.1537th percentile-0.3821st percentile
Attainment 843.643rd percentile41.633rd percentile46.745th percentile44.041st percentile

Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -0.41 — below average, the 20th percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.41 of a grade per subject lower than pupils across England who had the same results at the end of primary school.

The 95% confidence interval for 2023–24 runs -0.60 to -0.23. That sits entirely below zero, so the below-average result is very unlikely to be chance. It has moved around a good deal across the years shown, from -0.57 to -0.15. The three-year average is the steadier number to judge it on.

Attainment 8 is the average grade pupils leave with across eight GCSEs; it tells you where they ended up, and tracks the intake a school admits as much as anything the school does. Progress 8 compares those grades with pupils nationally who had the same results at the end of primary school, so it is the better measure of what a school added.

Other GCSE measures, 2023–24.
Grade 5+ in English & Maths43%50th percentile
EBacc average point score3.5735th percentile

Progress 8 by where pupils started

A school can post a respectable overall score while coasting one group and carrying the average on another. The row that matters to you is the one your own child sits in.

Pupils grouped by their results at the end of primary school.
2023–242022–232021–223-year average
Lower starters-0.19-0.04-0.04-0.09
Middle starters-0.41-0.61-0.13-0.38
Higher starters-0.61-0.97-0.44-0.67

How hard it is to get in

299 families named this school first for 219 places for 2026 entry — 1.37 first preferences per place.

First preferences per place offered, by the September pupils started.
2026 entry2025 entry2024 entry
Per place1.37×1.50×1.35×

This is how sought-after a school is, not how good it is — demand tracks house prices and older siblings as much as anything a school does. It is also not your chance of getting in: a school with two applicants per place can still admit everyone living near it, while a less popular school a mile further away turns you down. Distance is usually what decides it, and that depends on your address.

Attendance

2023–2024 · lower is better. A pupil is persistently absent if they miss a tenth or more of sessions.
Overall absence8.3%57th percentile
Persistently absent pupils25.4%50th percentile

Absence is worth reading next to results: it is a plainer signal of whether pupils are turning up and engaged than any grade average. Across the schools in this dataset the overall absence rate averages 9.0%, so this school is below the norm.

Ofsted

Achievement: Needs attention · Behaviour: Strong standard · Leadership: Expected standard

Inspected under Ofsted's 2025 report cards, which replaced the single overall grade with a grade per area on a five-point scale from Exceptional to Urgent improvement.

What these figures don't tell you

The GCSE results here are for 2023–24 and earlier, which describes pupils who have already left. Nothing on this page covers where pupils go next, A-level or sixth-form results, pastoral care, how far a school pushes music, sport or drama, or how it feels to walk around — and those are the things parents most often say settled it. Visit at an open evening before you rank a school.

Nor is any of it a prediction of a place. Whether your child is offered one depends on the school's admission criteria and, most often, on how far you live from the gate.

See Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School on the map →Compare it with every other secondary school nearby, filter on results, admissions pressure or Ofsted, and sort the schools closest to your own postcode.

Elsewhere on the web