Guest, Sign inJoin
D

Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy

SecondaryAges 11–16AcademyChurch of England/Roman Catholic

Runcorn, WA7 5YH · Halton local authority

Runcorn’s School Grade C− better than 15% of towns in England

Its letter
7%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
57/57
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
332 pupils
35% of its 950 places
Free school meals
62%
62 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy

  • Its own letter, D: GCSE results near the bottom of England’s secondary schools (better than 7%)
  • 23% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 24 points below England’s schools
  • Room to spare: 332 pupils for 950 places
  • 62% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 30%)
  • Ofsted: Inspected, March 2025 (shown, not graded)
  • Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (57 of 57)
  • Progress 8 of -1.37 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 (WA7 5) sold for a median £155,000; Runcorn’s is £175,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 70 pupils

Each bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and CofE beats are shaded green.

Attainment 8 37.5

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 10% of schools · Halton avg 40.1

20304050607080England avg 47.3Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and CofE 37.5

Grade 5+ in English and maths 23%

A strong pass · higher than 5% of schools · Halton avg 34%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and CofE 23%

Attainment 8, three years

The mark is England’s average that year

2023/24
27.3
2024/25
33.3
2025/26
37.5

Progress 8, 2023/24

−1 behind0 = national+1 ahead

-1.37: 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 42 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
31England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
47.3England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths37%
England’s schools 66% · Halton 53% · 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 Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy?

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

57
families put it first for September 2026
59
places offered
100%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20222023202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered

In every year shown, every family who put it first was offered a place. 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. St Joseph Catholic Multi Academy Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Halton council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools in Runcorn, September 2026

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

1.07 per place
93% got their first choice
0.98 per place
100% got their first choice
0.97 per place
100% got their first choice
0.97 per place
100% got their first choice
Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and CofE
0.97 per place
100% got their first choice

Runcorn and Halton, side by side

2025/26

All 8 graded secondaries in Halton. 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. Runcorn’s schools are coloured by their letter.

35384144475010%20%30%40%50%60%70%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →Ormiston BolingbrokeThe HeathThe GrangeSandymoor OrmistonBlessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and CofE
ABCDElsewhere in HaltonBlessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and CofE
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
Wade Deacon High SchoolB+26%49.2
Sandymoor Ormiston AcademyC29%43.2
The Heath SchoolC−33%41
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic High SchoolC−41%39.9
Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England AcademyD62%37.5
Ormiston Bolingbroke AcademyD62%37
Ormiston Chadwick AcademyD52%37
The Grange SchoolD53%36

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

363 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
13.2%England 14%
EHC plan
3%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
9.4%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
59.5%England 29.6%

Girls and boys

Girls 54%Boys 46%
Its letter

Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy’s letter

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

Secondary: Attainment 8 and grade 5+ English and maths DBetter than 7% 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.

Graded inspection (no overall grade since September 2024), March 2025.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy

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

Home prices in WA7 5, the school’s postcode sector

Runcorn property prices →
£155,000
median sale, 383 sales in 36 months · Runcorn £175,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£50K£100K£150K£200K2010201520202025WA7 5Runcorn
WA7 5Runcorn

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£222K
Semi-detached
£185K
Terraced
£130K
Flat
£83K
WA7 5Runcorn

Homes in WA7 5 sell for a little under Runcorn’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

25 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNBCA+D−B−B−C+B−DDD−C+A−DA−C−C−DB−CDB−D−CCDBlessed Carlo Acutis Cathol…
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Runcorn, WA7 5YH

Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy: common questions

Is Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy a good school?

By its published results, well below average: its GCSE results are better than 7% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is D), with an Attainment 8 of 37.5 and 23% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, March 2025.

How hard is it to get into Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy?

For September 2026, 57 families put Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 59 places were offered in all.

What is Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (March 2025).

How much do houses cost near Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic and Church of England Academy?

Homes in its postcode sector, WA7 5, sold for a median £155,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (383 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; Runcorn’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.