State-fundedAcademy converter · Gateshead · NE16 5AR
Secondary with sixth form · ages 11–18
Whickham School is a state-funded school in Gateshead, teaching pupils aged 11 to 18.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | +0.2670th percentile | +0.1563rd percentile | +0.2468th percentile | +0.2268th percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 52.478th percentile | 52.378th percentile | 55.379th percentile | 53.379th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was +0.26 — above average, the 70th percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.26 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 +0.08 to +0.43. That sits entirely above zero, so the above-average result is very unlikely to be chance. 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 | 56%74th percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 4.8280th 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 | +0.34 | +0.61 | +0.55 | +0.50 |
| Middle starters | +0.13 | +0.13 | +0.32 | +0.19 |
| Higher starters | +0.39 | +0.00 | -0.03 | +0.12 |
289 families named this school first for 279 places for 2026 entry — 1.04 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 1.04× | 1.08× | 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 | 8.2%59th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 23.5%59th 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 (Improving) - S5 Next
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 Whickham 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.