Movilla High School
Donaghadee Road, Newtownards, BT23 7HA · Ards And North Down
Newtownards’s School Grade B+ against Northern Ireland’s towns
What stands out about Movilla High School
- Its own letter, D−: 29% of Year 12 got 5+ GCSEs A*–C with English and maths, against 60% at the average non-grammar school
- Mostly one community: 5% Catholic, 66% Protestant and 29% other or none
- 158 of 600 places free this year
Results
DE · exams 2024/25 · 75 Year 12 pupilsEach bar is a group of schools. The schools Movilla High School beats are shaded green.
5+ GCSEs A*–C with English and maths 29%
Against Northern Ireland’s 120 non-grammar schools: higher than 2%. Against all 186: higher than 1%.
Department of Education, examination performance at post-primary schools 2024/25. Also: 71% got 5+ GCSEs A*–C in any subjects.
Pupils
DE school census · October 2025 · 640 pupilsEach year group
Years 8 to 12 to GCSE, then the sixth form (dark bars).
Who goes here
Pupils by religion, against Newtownards’s other post-primary schools.
322 pupils are on the special needs register: 124 supported by the school at stages 1 and 2, and 198 with a statement. The school has a learning support centre, a specialist class of 54 pupils. 5% are newcomer pupils, who don’t yet have the language of the curriculum.
Department of Education, school enrolment, school level data 2025/26: year groups, religion, SEN, newcomers.
Pupil numbers over time
Published school census enrolments, by academic year.
Department of Education school censuses, 2016/17–2025/26. This school’s reference number throughout; primary totals include attached nursery classes. Later workbooks separate specialist provision in mainstream; combined totals are used where published. Missing counts stay missing.
Side by side
Newtownards’s 2 post-primary schoolsAgainst the town’s other post-primary schools. Grammar schools’ results are higher because they select at 11; each letter compares a school with its own kind.
5+ GCSEs A*–C with English and maths
3+ A-levels A*–C
How the letter is worked out
Northern Ireland selects at 11. Grammar schools average 94% of pupils with five good GCSEs including English and maths, non-grammar schools 60%. Ranked against all 186 schools together, a non-grammar school would be held to grammar-school intakes, and a grammar school would look outstanding for its intake alone. So Movilla High School’s D− is its place among Northern Ireland’s 120 non-grammar schools: better than 2% of them. Among all schools it is better than 1%.
The bands are the site’s own: A+ is the top 5%, A the next 10%, and so on down to D− for the bottom 5%. It rests on one year’s results; Northern Ireland publishes no progress measure.
Schools near Movilla High School
Every mainstream school within 3 km. Post-primary schools are squares, with their letter; integrated schools are teal.
The five nearest
- Victoria PS · Controlled · 0.3 km
- St Finian's PS · Catholic maintained · 0.6 km
- Abbey PS · Controlled · 1.1 km
- Castle Gardens PS · Controlled · 1.1 km
- Londonderry PS · Controlled · 1.2 km
Schools of the same phase near Movilla High School
Nearest first, within the same nation, as the crow flies. Up to 8 km, or 25 km where there are fewer than three nearby. Catchments and admissions rules decide which school a child gets.
Movilla High School: common questions
Is Movilla High School a good school?
By its published GCSE results it earns a D− among Northern Ireland’s non-grammar schools: 29% of its Year 12 pupils got 5 or more GCSEs at A* to C including English and maths in 2024/25, against 60% at the average non-grammar school.
How many pupils go to Movilla High School?
640 in October 2025.
Are there places at Movilla High School?
For 2025/26 the Department of Education counts 158 places free of its approved enrolment of 600. Apply through the Education Authority, in Primary 7.
Not on this page yet: the Education and Training Inspectorate’s latest report and the school’s budget per pupil.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.