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C−

The Whitby High School

SecondaryAges 11–18FoundationSixth form

Ellesmere Port, CH66 2NU · Cheshire West and Chester local authority

Ellesmere Port’s School Grade D better than 7% of towns in England

Its letter
16%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
185/185
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
1,398 pupils
86% of its 1,625 places
Free school meals
27%
27 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about The Whitby High School

  • Its own letter, C−: GCSE results better than 16% of England’s secondary schools
  • 32% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 16 points below England’s schools
  • Ofsted report card, June 2026: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met (shown, not graded)
  • Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (185 of 185)
  • Progress 8 of -0.58 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did less well at GCSE than pupils nationally with the same results at 11
  • Homes in its postcode sector (CH66 2) sold for a median £235,000; Ellesmere Port’s is £202,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 267 pupils

Each bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools The Whitby High beats are shaded green.

Attainment 8 39

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 14% of schools · Cheshire West and Chester avg 45.7

20304050607080England avg 47.3The Whitby High 39

Grade 5+ in English and maths 32%

A strong pass · higher than 17% of schools · Cheshire West and Chester avg 43%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%The Whitby High 32%

Attainment 8, three years

The mark is England’s average that year

2023/24
38.4
2024/25
38.9
2025/26
39

Progress 8, 2023/24

−1 behind0 = national+1 ahead

-0.58: below average. How pupils did at GCSE against pupils nationally with the same results at 11. Not published since 2023/24 (no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021).

Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26

Attainment 8 for the 76 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
28.6England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
43.1England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths49%
England’s schools 66% · Cheshire West and Chester 63% · a standard pass

England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.

Getting in

How hard is it to get a place at The Whitby High School?

Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.

185
families put it first for September 2026
196
places offered
100%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20192020202120222023202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered
Red figures: first choices not offered a place

Years when some first choices missed out: 2019 (48), 2023 (1). The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. The school’s governing body sets the admissions rules. Apply through Cheshire West and Chester council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools in Ellesmere Port, September 2026

Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places

0.96 per place
100% got their first choice
0.95 per place
100% got their first choice
The Whitby High
0.94 per place
100% got their first choice

Ellesmere Port and Cheshire West and Chester, side by side

2025/26

All 19 graded secondaries in Cheshire West and Chester. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. Ellesmere Port’s schools are coloured by their letter.

30354045505510%20%30%40%50%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →Ellesmere Port CofE CollegeEllesmere Port Catholic High School, a VoluntaryThe Whitby High
ABCDElsewhere in Cheshire West and ChesterThe Whitby High
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
Tarporley High School and Sixth Form CollegeA12%57.5
Upton-by-Chester High SchoolA−16%54.6
Bishop Heber High SchoolA14%54.6
The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High SchoolA−17%53.7
Weaverham High SchoolA−20%53.5
Christleton High SchoolA−10%52.4
The County High School, LeftwichB+16%50.1
St Nicholas Catholic High SchoolB14%49.7
Hartford Church of England High SchoolA−17%49.7
Queen's Park High SchoolB+28%48.6
Helsby High SchoolB−17%46.6
Neston High SchoolC+18%46.2
The Catholic High School, ChesterC23%44.1
The Whitby High SchoolC−27%39
Ellesmere Port Church of England CollegeD44%36.9
Ellesmere Port Catholic High School, a Voluntary AcademyD−35%36.2
The Rudheath Senior AcademyD−36%32.2
The Winsford AcademyD−43%32
Blacon High School, A Specialist Sports CollegeD−49%30.3

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

1,477 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.

SEN support
9.4%England 14%
EHC plan
2.2%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
7.7%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
28.2%England 29.6%

Girls and boys

Girls 49%Boys 51%
Its letter

The Whitby High School’s letter

Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.

Secondary: Attainment 8 and grade 5+ English and maths C−Better than 16% of 3,224 schools
How school letters are worked out

Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.

A+ 95+A 85–94A− 75–84B+ 65–74B 55–64B− 45–54C+ 35–44C 25–34C− 15–24D 5–14D− 0–4

Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.

Ofsted

Ofsted inspections

Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.

Report card, inspection starting June 2026.

SafeguardingMet
AchievementNeeds attention
Curriculum and teachingNeeds attention
InclusionNeeds attention
Attendance and behaviourNeeds attention
Personal development and well-beingExpected standard
Leadership and governanceExpected standard
Sixth formExpected standard

Before the report card: Graded inspection: Good, May 2022.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near The Whitby High School

For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.

Home prices in CH66 2, the school’s postcode sector

Ellesmere Port property prices →
£235,000
median sale, 469 sales in 36 months · Ellesmere Port £202,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£100K£150K£200K£250K2010201520202025CH66 2Ellesmere Port
CH66 2Ellesmere Port

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£311K
Semi-detached
£211K
Terraced
£173K
Flat
£122K
CH66 2Ellesmere Port

Homes in CH66 2 sell for well over Ellesmere Port’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.

Schools within 1.6 miles

16 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNC−C−C+C−D−C−B−CB−DC−DD−CBCC−The Whitby High School
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Ellesmere Port, CH66 2NU

The Whitby High School: common questions

Is The Whitby High School a good school?

By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 16% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C−), with an Attainment 8 of 39 and 32% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: a report card in June 2026.

How hard is it to get into The Whitby High School?

For September 2026, 185 families put The Whitby High School first and all of them were offered a place; 196 places were offered in all.

What is The Whitby High School’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection (June 2026) gave a report card: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met. Ofsted stopped giving one-word overall grades in September 2024.

How much do houses cost near The Whitby High School?

Homes in its postcode sector, CH66 2, sold for a median £235,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (469 sales).

Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.

A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; Ellesmere Port’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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.