Carnforth High School
Carnforth, LA5 9LS · Lancashire local authority
Carnforth’s School Grade D better than 12% of towns in England
What stands out about Carnforth High School
- Its own letter, C: GCSE results better than 32% of England’s secondary schools
- 37% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 11 points below England’s schools
- Ofsted report card, April 2026: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (100 of 100)
- Progress 8 of -0.29 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 (LA5 9) sold for a median £210,000; Carnforth’s is £190,000
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 112 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Carnforth High beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 43.5
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 35% of schools · Lancashire avg 46.2
Grade 5+ in English and maths 37%
A strong pass · higher than 28% of schools · Lancashire avg 44%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
-0.29: 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 27 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 Carnforth High School?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2019 (16), 2020 (45), 2021 (30), 2022 (22), 2023 (2), 2024 (3). 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 Bay Learning Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Lancashire council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
100% got their first choice
Carnforth and Lancashire, side by side
2025/26All 82 graded secondaries in Lancashire. 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. Carnforth’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School | A+ | 7% | 75.5 |
| Lancaster Girls' Grammar School | A+ | 7% | 72.1 |
| Lancaster Royal Grammar School | A+ | 9% | 71.6 |
| Clitheroe Royal Grammar School | A+ | 11% | 70.8 |
| Preston Muslim Girls High School | A | 22% | 61.7 |
| St Michael's Church of England High School | A | 3% | 60.6 |
| Archbishop Temple Church of England High School | A | 16% | 56.9 |
| Bishop Rawstorne Church of England Academy | A | 9% | 56.2 |
| Broughton High School | A | 11% | 55.5 |
| Penwortham Girls' High School | A | 17% | 55.4 |
| Holy Cross Catholic High School | A | 12% | 55.4 |
| Our Lady's Catholic High School | A− | 18% | 54.9 |
| Eden Boys' School, Preston | A | 26% | 54.5 |
| Corpus Christi Catholic High School | A | 24% | 54.1 |
| St Bede's Catholic High School | A− | 7% | 54 |
| All Hallows Catholic High School | A− | 10% | 53.6 |
| Balshaw's Church of England High School | B+ | 13% | 53 |
| Longridge High School | B+ | 34% | 51.1 |
| Hutton Church of England Grammar School | B+ | 15% | 50.5 |
| Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School | B+ | 15% | 50.5 |
| Up Holland High School | B+ | 24% | 50 |
| Hodgson Academy | B+ | 19% | 49.3 |
| Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy | B+ | 11% | 49.1 |
| Parklands High School | B | 28% | 49.1 |
| Bowland High | B− | 10% | 48.4 |
| St Bede's Catholic High School, Lytham | B | 15% | 47.7 |
| Ashton Community Science College | B | 37% | 47.6 |
| Millfield School | B | 22% | 47.5 |
| Whitworth Community High School | B | 25% | 47.4 |
| Baines School | B | 31% | 47.4 |
| Lostock Hall Academy | B− | 21% | 47.2 |
| Penwortham Priory Academy | B | 25% | 47 |
| St Mary's Catholic High School | B− | 21% | 46.8 |
| Lytham St Annes High School | B− | 25% | 46.1 |
| Cardinal Allen Catholic High School, Fleetwood | B− | 31% | 46 |
| Haslingden High School and Sixth Form | C+ | 22% | 45.3 |
| Albany Academy | C | 31% | 45.1 |
| Garstang Community Academy | B− | 20% | 45 |
| St Augustine's Roman Catholic High School, a Voluntary Academy | C+ | 15% | 45 |
| Brownedge St Mary's Catholic High School | C+ | 23% | 44.4 |
| St Cecilia's RC High School | C+ | 30% | 44 |
| Fulwood Academy | C+ | 43% | 43.8 |
| Mount Carmel Roman Catholic High School, Hyndburn | C | 35% | 43.5 |
| Carnforth High School | C | 32% | 43.5 |
| Saint Aidan's Church of England High School | C+ | 18% | 43.4 |
| Burscough Priory Academy | C | 16% | 42.6 |
| All Saints' Roman Catholic High School, a Voluntary Academy | C | 37% | 42.6 |
| Tarleton Academy | C | 20% | 42.5 |
| Academy@Worden | C− | 31% | 42.4 |
| Ormskirk School | C | 22% | 42.3 |
| Ribblesdale School | C | 17% | 41.9 |
| The Hollins | C | 35% | 41.9 |
| Pendle Vale College | C− | 38% | 41.8 |
| Lancaster High School | C | 49% | 41.8 |
| Lathom High School : A Technology College | C | 45% | 41.6 |
| Ss John Fisher and Thomas More Roman Catholic High School | C | 32% | 41.5 |
| Colne Park High School | C | 33% | 41.5 |
| Marsden Heights Community College | C | 35% | 41.5 |
| Carr Hill High School | C− | 27% | 41.3 |
| Our Lady's Catholic College | C | 40% | 41.1 |
| Christ The King Catholic High School | C | 48% | 41 |
| Southlands High School | C− | 30% | 40.4 |
| Sir John Thursby Community College | C− | 43% | 40.3 |
| Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic College, A Voluntary Academy | C− | 39% | 40.1 |
| Accrington Academy | C− | 42% | 39.8 |
| Morecambe Bay Academy | C− | 44% | 39.7 |
| Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic High School | D | 43% | 39.5 |
| Moor Park High School | D | 41% | 39.2 |
| Alder Grange School | D | 23% | 39.1 |
| Burnley High School | D | 41% | 38.9 |
| Shuttleworth College | C− | 48% | 38 |
| Unity College | D | 35% | 38 |
| Colne Primet Academy | D | 42% | 37.1 |
| The Hyndburn Academy | D | 47% | 37.1 |
| Fleetwood High School | D | 51% | 37 |
| Bay Leadership Academy | D | 49% | 37 |
| Maharishi Free School | D− | 20% | 35.5 |
| West Craven High School | D− | 29% | 35 |
| Wellfield Academy | D− | 38% | 34.8 |
| The Valley Leadership Academy | D | 42% | 34.3 |
| Rhyddings | D− | 49% | 33.9 |
| Walton-Le-Dale High School | D− | 38% | 33.4 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025685 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
Carnforth High 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.
Report card, inspection starting April 2026.
Before the report card: Ungraded inspection: School remains Good, December 2021.
Living near Carnforth High School
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in LA5 9, the school’s postcode sector
Carnforth property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in LA5 9 sell for a little over Carnforth’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
6 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗
Carnforth, LA5 9LS
Carnforth High School: common questions
Is Carnforth High School a good school?
By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 32% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C), with an Attainment 8 of 43.5 and 37% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: a report card in April 2026.
How hard is it to get into Carnforth High School?
For September 2026, 100 families put Carnforth High School first and all of them were offered a place; 135 places were offered in all.
What is Carnforth High School’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection (April 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 Carnforth High School?
Homes in its postcode sector, LA5 9, sold for a median £210,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (404 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; Carnforth’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.