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D−

Park Lane Academy

SecondaryAges 11–16Academy

Halifax, HX3 9LG · Calderdale local authority

Halifax’s School Grade B better than 65% of towns in England

Its letter
2%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
78/78
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
481 pupils
80% of its 600 places
Free school meals
57%
57 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about Park Lane Academy

  • Its own letter, D−: GCSE results near the bottom of England’s secondary schools (better than 2%)
  • 18% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 29 points below England’s schools
  • 57% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 30%)
  • Ofsted: Inspected, May 2025 (shown, not graded)
  • Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (78 of 78)
  • 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 (HX3 9) sold for a median £164,000; Halifax’s is £152,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 66 pupils

Each bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Park Lane beats are shaded green.

Attainment 8 32.3

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 2% of schools · Calderdale avg 49

20304050607080England avg 47.3Park Lane 32.3

Grade 5+ in English and maths 18%

A strong pass · higher than 2% of schools · Calderdale avg 51%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%Park Lane 18%

Attainment 8, three years

The mark is England’s average that year

2023/24
32.9
2024/25
40.9
2025/26
32.3

Progress 8, 2023/24

−1 behind0 = national+1 ahead

-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 34 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
29.6England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
35.2England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths30%
England’s schools 66% · Calderdale 68% · a standard pass

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.

Getting in

How hard is it to get a place at Park Lane Academy?

Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.

78
families put it first for September 2026
96
places offered
100%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20192020202120222023202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered

In every year shown, every family who put it first was offered a place. 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. South Pennine Academies sets the admissions rules. Apply through Calderdale council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools in Halifax, September 2026

Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places

1.66 per place
56% got their first choice
1.33 per place
63% got their first choice
1.09 per place
86% got their first choice
0.85 per place
100% got their first choice
Park Lane
0.81 per place
100% got their first choice
0.74 per place
100% got their first choice

Halifax and Calderdale, side by side

2025/26

All 13 graded secondaries in Calderdale. 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. Halifax’s schools are coloured by their letter.

30384654627010%20%30%40%50%60%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →Trinity Academy HalifaxThe North Halifax GrammarThe Crossley HeathThe HalifaxTrinity Academy GrammarPark Lane
ABCDElsewhere in CalderdalePark Lane
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
The Crossley Heath SchoolA+11%73.2
The North Halifax Grammar SchoolA+6%69.6
The Brooksbank SchoolA−29%51.5
Rastrick High SchoolA−22%50.9
The Calder Learning TrustB+28%49.5
Trinity Academy HalifaxB+37%49.4
Ryburn Valley High SchoolA−25%48.1
Todmorden High School, A SHARE AcademyC+29%46.2
Trinity Academy GrammarC+56%45.4
Brighouse High SchoolC23%43.4
The Halifax AcademyC−41%39.6
Lightcliffe AcademyD35%37.3
Park Lane AcademyD−57%32.3

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

472 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.

SEN support
18.9%England 14%
EHC plan
7.6%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
16.1%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
56.4%England 29.6%

Girls and boys

Girls 52%Boys 48%
Its letter

Park Lane Academy’s letter

Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.

Secondary: Attainment 8 and grade 5+ English and maths D−Better than 2% of 3,224 schools
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.

A+ 95+A 85–94A− 75–84B+ 65–74B 55–64B− 45–54C+ 35–44C 25–34C− 15–24D 5–14D− 0–4

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

Ofsted inspections

Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.

Graded inspection (no overall grade since September 2024), May 2025.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near Park Lane Academy

For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.

Home prices in HX3 9, the school’s postcode sector

Halifax property prices →
£164,000
median sale, 314 sales in 36 months · Halifax £152,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£50K£100K£150K£200K2010201520202025HX3 9Halifax
HX3 9Halifax

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£418K
Semi-detached
£178K
Terraced
£149K
Flat
£92K
HX3 9Halifax

Homes in HX3 9 sell for a little over Halifax’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

15 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNBC−B−BB−D−A−A+BC−DA+B+D−A−D−Park Lane Academy
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Halifax, HX3 9LG

Park Lane Academy: common questions

Is Park Lane 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 32.3 and 18% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, May 2025.

How hard is it to get into Park Lane Academy?

For September 2026, 78 families put Park Lane Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 96 places were offered in all.

What is Park Lane Academy’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (May 2025).

How much do houses cost near Park Lane Academy?

Homes in its postcode sector, HX3 9, sold for a median £164,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (314 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; Halifax’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.