State-fundedFoundation school · Wirral · CH61 6XN
Secondary with sixth form · ages 11–18
Pensby High School is a state-funded school in Wirral, teaching pupils aged 11 to 18.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | +0.2871st percentile | +0.2771st percentile | +0.1965th percentile | +0.2570th percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 43.743rd percentile | 44.848th percentile | 45.239th percentile | 44.644th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was +0.28 — above average, the 71st percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.28 of a grade per subject higher than pupils across England who had the same results at the end of primary school.
The 95% confidence interval for 2023–24 runs +0.06 to +0.50. That sits entirely above zero, so the above-average result is very unlikely to be chance. It has risen in each of the years shown (2021–22 to 2023–24), which is a more convincing signal than any single year.
Progress here runs well ahead of attainment. Pupils arrive behind and are moved further than similar starters elsewhere, but still leave with grades below what many other schools post. If you compare schools on raw grades alone you will underrate this one.
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.
| Grade 5+ in English & Maths | 38%41st percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 3.7240th percentile |
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.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower starters | +0.69 | +0.33 | +0.49 | +0.50 |
| Middle starters | +0.08 | +0.24 | +0.02 | +0.11 |
| Higher starters | +0.14 | — | -0.45 | -0.16 |
165 families named this school first for 173 places for 2026 entry — 0.95 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 0.95× | 1.01× | 0.86× |
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.
| Overall absence | 7.6%69th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 17.8%82nd 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.
School remains Good
The outcome of an ungraded inspection, which checks whether a school's previous grade still holds rather than issuing a new one.
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 Pensby 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.