The Duchess's Community High School
Alnwick, NE66 2DH · Northumberland local authority
Alnwick’s School Grade C+ better than 42% of towns in England
What stands out about The Duchess's Community High School
- Its own letter, C−: GCSE results better than 23% of England’s secondary schools
- 35% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 12 points below England’s schools
- 18% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (fewer than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Requires improvement, October 2021 (shown, not graded)
- 99% of families who put it first got a place for September 2026 (188 of 189)
- Homes in its postcode sector (NE66 2) sold for a median £319,000; Alnwick’s is £240,995
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 192 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools The Duchess's Community High beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 41.3
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 24% of schools · Northumberland avg 43.9
Grade 5+ in English and maths 35%
A strong pass · higher than 23% of schools · Northumberland avg 41%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26
Attainment 8 for the 36 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 Duchess's Community High School?
99% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2021 (2), 2023 (1), 2025 (3), 2026 (1). 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. Pele Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Northumberland council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
99% got their first choice
Alnwick and Northumberland, side by side
2025/26All 16 graded secondaries in Northumberland. 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. Alnwick’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ponteland High School | A− | 12% | 53.4 |
| The King Edward VI School | A− | 13% | 51.1 |
| Queen Elizabeth High School | B+ | 14% | 49.4 |
| Ashington Academy | B+ | 35% | 48.3 |
| Bedlington Academy | B | 33% | 47.6 |
| Cramlington Learning Village | B− | 25% | 47.5 |
| Prudhoe Community High School | C+ | 20% | 46.1 |
| Bede Academy | B− | 25% | 45.4 |
| St Benet Biscop Catholic Academy | C | 33% | 43.6 |
| The Duchess's Community High School | C− | 18% | 41.3 |
| The Blyth Academy | C | 50% | 40.7 |
| Haydon Bridge High School | C− | 29% | 40.5 |
| Berwick Academy | C− | 29% | 39.3 |
| Seaton Valley High School | C− | 33% | 38.7 |
| NCEA Duke's Secondary School | D | 50% | 36.3 |
| Coquet Community School | D− | 34% | 32.7 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 20251,341 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 Duchess's Community 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.
Graded inspection: Requires improvement, October 2021.
Living near The Duchess's Community High School
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in NE66 2, the school’s postcode sector
Alnwick property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in NE66 2 sell for well over Alnwick’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
3 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Alnwick, NE66 2DH
The Duchess's Community High School: common questions
Is The Duchess's Community High School a good school?
By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 23% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C−), with an Attainment 8 of 41.3 and 35% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Requires improvement, October 2021.
How hard is it to get into The Duchess's Community High School?
For September 2026, 189 families put The Duchess's Community High School first and 188 of them were offered a place; 188 places were offered in all.
What is The Duchess's Community High School’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Requires improvement (October 2021).
How much do houses cost near The Duchess's Community High School?
Homes in its postcode sector, NE66 2, sold for a median £319,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (275 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; Alnwick’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.