State-fundedAcademy converter · Staffordshire · WS13 7EW
Secondary with sixth form · ages 11–18
The Friary School is a state-funded school in Staffordshire, teaching pupils aged 11 to 18.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | +0.8695th percentile | +0.7292nd percentile | +0.6791st percentile | +0.7594th percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 57.688th percentile | 56.587th percentile | 59.888th percentile | 58.088th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was +0.86 — well above average, the 95th percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.86 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 +0.67 to +1.06. 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.
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 | 62%82nd percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 5.1186th 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 | +1.35 | +0.85 | +0.70 | +0.97 |
| Middle starters | +0.82 | +0.79 | +0.64 | +0.75 |
| Higher starters | +0.63 | +0.50 | +0.74 | +0.62 |
268 families named this school first for 217 places for 2026 entry — 1.24 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 1.24× | 1.23× | 1.20× |
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 | 6.9%79th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 18.4%80th 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 The Friary 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.