State-fundedVoluntary aided school · Blackburn with Darwen · BB2 4SR · Roman Catholic
Secondary (no sixth form) · ages 11–16
St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn is a state-funded school in Blackburn with Darwen, teaching pupils aged 11 to 16. It has a religious character (Roman Catholic).
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | -0.2531st percentile | -0.1241st percentile | +0.0755th percentile | -0.1042nd percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 44.145th percentile | 46.555th percentile | 49.256th percentile | 46.653rd percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -0.25 — below average, the 31st percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.25 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 -0.44 to -0.06. That sits entirely below zero, so the below-average result is very unlikely to be chance. It has fallen in each of the years shown (2021–22 to 2023–24) — worth asking the school about at an open evening.
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 | 42%47th percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 4.1258th 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 | -0.57 | -0.60 | +0.35 | -0.27 |
| Middle starters | -0.08 | +0.05 | -0.12 | -0.05 |
| Higher starters | -0.48 | -0.18 | +0.23 | -0.14 |
262 families named this school first for 207 places for 2026 entry — 1.27 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 1.27× | 1.17× | 1.29× |
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 | 9.1%44th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 27.3%41st 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 above the norm.
Not inspected, or no grade in the published data
Around half of schools currently have no grade here — usually recently opened schools, or academies whose last full inspection was under a predecessor URN.
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 St Bede's Roman Catholic High School, Blackburn 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.