Pensby High School
Heswall, CH61 6XN · Wirral local authority
Heswall’s School Grade B+ better than 74% of towns in England
What stands out about Pensby High School
- Its own letter, B−: GCSE results better than 51% of England’s secondary schools
- Ofsted: Good, March 2023 (shown, not graded)
- 96% of families who put it first got a place for September 2026 (159 of 165)
- Progress 8 of +0.28 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did better at GCSE than pupils nationally with the same results at 11
- Homes in its postcode sector (CH61 6) sold for a median £290,000; Heswall’s is £302,500
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 178 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Pensby High beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 45.9
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 48% of schools · Wirral avg 47.2
Grade 5+ in English and maths 47%
A strong pass · higher than 54% of schools · Wirral avg 47%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
+0.28: above 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 46 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 Pensby High School?
96% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2020 (14), 2021 (12), 2022 (48), 2023 (17), 2024 (9), 2025 (16), 2026 (6). 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 Wirral council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
96% got their first choice
Heswall and Wirral, side by side
2025/26All 20 graded secondaries in Wirral. 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. Heswall’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wirral Grammar School for Girls | A+ | 10% | 70.9 |
| West Kirby Grammar School | A+ | 8% | 68.6 |
| Wirral Grammar School for Boys | A+ | 11% | 68.2 |
| Upton Hall School FCJ | A+ | 10% | 65.6 |
| Calday Grange Grammar School | A+ | 8% | 63.7 |
| St Anselm's College | A+ | 11% | 63.1 |
| Birkenhead High School Academy | B | 20% | 49.1 |
| Pensby High School | B− | 25% | 45.9 |
| Weatherhead High School | C+ | 43% | 44.2 |
| Prenton High School for Girls | C− | 47% | 40.8 |
| St John Plessington Catholic College | C− | 43% | 39.4 |
| Birkenhead Park School | D | 69% | 39.1 |
| Woodchurch High School | D | 43% | 38.5 |
| South Wirral High School | D | 37% | 38.1 |
| Hilbre High School | D | 31% | 37.8 |
| Ridgeway High School | D | 61% | 37.7 |
| Co-op Academy Bebington | D− | 53% | 36.3 |
| The Mosslands School | D− | 41% | 34.5 |
| St Mary's Catholic College, A Voluntary Academy | D− | 47% | 34 |
| Co-op Academy Oldershaw | D− | 63% | 29 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025920 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
Pensby 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.
Ungraded inspection: School remains Good, March 2023.
Living near Pensby High School
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in CH61 6, the school’s postcode sector
Heswall property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in CH61 6 sell for a little under Heswall’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
7 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗
Heswall, CH61 6XN
Pensby High School: common questions
Is Pensby High School a good school?
By its published results, above average: its GCSE results are better than 51% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is B−), with an Attainment 8 of 45.9 and 47% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, March 2023.
How hard is it to get into Pensby High School?
For September 2026, 165 families put Pensby High School first and 159 of them were offered a place; 173 places were offered in all.
What is Pensby High School’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Good (March 2023).
How much do houses cost near Pensby High School?
Homes in its postcode sector, CH61 6, sold for a median £290,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (91 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; Heswall’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.