State-fundedCommunity school · Suffolk · IP31 3PB
Secondary with sixth form · ages 11–18
Thurston Community College is a state-funded school in Suffolk, teaching pupils aged 11 to 18.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | -0.1638th percentile | -0.1439th percentile | -0.1438th percentile | -0.1538th percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 44.446th percentile | 45.852nd percentile | 48.050th percentile | 46.150th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -0.16 — average, the 38th percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.16 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 -0.33 to +0.01. That range includes zero, so on this year's figures the school cannot be told apart from an average one — treat small differences between schools with care. It has been broadly steady across the years shown.
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 | 3.8546th 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 | -0.19 | -0.13 | -0.43 | -0.25 |
| Middle starters | -0.12 | -0.14 | -0.07 | -0.11 |
| Higher starters | -0.22 | -0.16 | +0.10 | -0.09 |
271 families named this school first for 277 places for 2026 entry — 0.98 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 0.98× | 0.94× | 0.93× |
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 | 8.5%54th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 24.0%57th 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 Thurston Community College 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.