The Winsford Academy
Winsford, CW7 2BT · Cheshire West and Chester local authority
Winsford’s School Grade D− better than 3% of towns in England
What stands out about The Winsford Academy
- Its own letter, D−: GCSE results near the bottom of England’s secondary schools (better than 2%)
- 19% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 28 points below England’s schools
- Room to spare: 945 pupils for 1,312 places
- 43% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Inspected, July 2025 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (106 of 106)
- Progress 8 of -1.10 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 (CW7 2) sold for a median £225,000; Winsford’s is £195,000
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 217 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools The Winsford beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 32
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 2% of schools · Cheshire West and Chester avg 45.7
Grade 5+ in English and maths 19%
A strong pass · higher than 2% of schools · Cheshire West and Chester avg 43%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
-1.10: 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
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.
How hard is it to get a place at The Winsford Academy?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2021 (38), 2022 (25). 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. Halliard Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Cheshire West and Chester council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
100% got their first choice
Winsford and Cheshire West and Chester, side by side
2025/26All 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. Winsford’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tarporley High School and Sixth Form College | A | 12% | 57.5 |
| Upton-by-Chester High School | A− | 16% | 54.6 |
| Bishop Heber High School | A | 14% | 54.6 |
| The Bishops' Blue Coat Church of England High School | A− | 17% | 53.7 |
| Weaverham High School | A− | 20% | 53.5 |
| Christleton High School | A− | 10% | 52.4 |
| The County High School, Leftwich | B+ | 16% | 50.1 |
| St Nicholas Catholic High School | B | 14% | 49.7 |
| Hartford Church of England High School | A− | 17% | 49.7 |
| Queen's Park High School | B+ | 28% | 48.6 |
| Helsby High School | B− | 17% | 46.6 |
| Neston High School | C+ | 18% | 46.2 |
| The Catholic High School, Chester | C | 23% | 44.1 |
| The Whitby High School | C− | 27% | 39 |
| Ellesmere Port Church of England College | D | 44% | 36.9 |
| Ellesmere Port Catholic High School, a Voluntary Academy | D− | 35% | 36.2 |
| The Rudheath Senior Academy | D− | 36% | 32.2 |
| The Winsford Academy | D− | 43% | 32 |
| Blacon High School, A Specialist Sports College | D− | 49% | 30.3 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 20251,023 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.
Girls and boys
The Winsford Academy’s letter
Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.
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.
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 inspections
Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.
Graded inspection (no overall grade since September 2024), July 2025.
Living near The Winsford Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in CW7 2, the school’s postcode sector
Winsford property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in CW7 2 sell for well over Winsford’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
10 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Winsford, CW7 2BT
The Winsford Academy: common questions
Is The Winsford Academy a good school?
By its published results, well below average: its GCSE results are better than 2% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is D−), with an Attainment 8 of 32 and 19% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, July 2025.
How hard is it to get into The Winsford Academy?
For September 2026, 106 families put The Winsford Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 130 places were offered in all.
What is The Winsford Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (July 2025).
How much do houses cost near The Winsford Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, CW7 2, sold for a median £225,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (480 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; Winsford’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.