Samuel King's School
Alston, CA9 3QU · Westmorland and Furness local authority
Alston’s School Grade D− behind almost every town in England
What stands out about Samuel King's School
- Its own letter, D−: GCSE results near the bottom of England’s secondary schools (better than 0%)
- 0% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 47 points below England’s schools
- Room to spare: 113 pupils for 235 places
- 19% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (fewer than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Good, July 2022 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (24 of 24)
- Progress 8 of -0.24 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did about as well at GCSE as pupils nationally with the same results at 11
- Homes in its postcode sector (CA9 3) sold for a median £227,500; Alston’s is £182,250
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 13 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Samuel King's beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 30.2
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 1% of schools · Westmorland and Furness avg 45.1
Grade 5+ in English and maths 0%
A strong pass · higher than 0% of schools · Westmorland and Furness avg 41%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
-0.24: about 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).
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 Samuel King's School?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2025 (2). 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 Westmorland and Furness council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
100% got their first choice
Alston and Westmorland and Furness, side by side
2025/26All 19 graded secondaries in Westmorland and Furness. 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. Alston’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Penrith | A+ | 5% | 65.2 |
| Queen Elizabeth School | A | 8% | 58.4 |
| Kirkby Stephen Grammar School | A− | 21% | 50.2 |
| Cartmel Priory CofE School | B | 14% | 49.8 |
| The Queen Katherine School | B | 17% | 49.3 |
| Ulverston Victoria High School | B− | 16% | 48.3 |
| Kirkbie Kendal School | B | 16% | 47.5 |
| John Ruskin School | C+ | 11% | 46 |
| Settlebeck School | B− | 13% | 45.7 |
| Dallam School | C+ | 15% | 44.1 |
| The Lakes School | C | 17% | 42.1 |
| Dowdales School | C− | 21% | 41.1 |
| Furness Academy | C− | 29% | 40.8 |
| Appleby Grammar School | C− | 18% | 40.7 |
| Walney Academy | C− | 28% | 40.5 |
| Ullswater Community College | C− | 21% | 39.5 |
| Chetwynde School | D | 17% | 38.5 |
| St Bernards Catholic High School, Barrow | C− | 28% | 38.5 |
| Samuel King's School | D− | 19% | 30.2 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025107 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
Samuel King's School’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.
Ungraded inspection: School remains Good, July 2022.
Living near Samuel King's School
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in CA9 3, the school’s postcode sector
Alston property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in CA9 3 sell for well over Alston’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
1 state schoolLocation
Directions ↗Alston, CA9 3QU
Samuel King's School: common questions
Is Samuel King's School a good school?
By its published results, well below average: its GCSE results are better than 0% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is D−), with an Attainment 8 of 30.2 and 0% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, July 2022.
How hard is it to get into Samuel King's School?
For September 2026, 24 families put Samuel King's School first and all of them were offered a place; 24 places were offered in all.
What is Samuel King's School’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Good (July 2022).
How much do houses cost near Samuel King's School?
Homes in its postcode sector, CA9 3, sold for a median £227,500 over the 36 months to August 2026 (76 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; Alston’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.