Secondary
Highdown School and Sixth Form Centre
Surley Row, Emmer Green, Reading, RG4 8LR
Key facts
- Phase
- Secondary
- Type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Intake
- Mixed
- Pupils
- 1537 of 1440 places
- Pupils per teacher
- 17.6
- Local authority
- Reading
- Sixth form
- Yes
- SEN provision
- VI - Visual Impairment
- Trust
- GLF SCHOOLS
Staffing23/24
- Teachers (FTE)
- 89.0
- All staff (FTE)
- 115.9
- Pupils per adult
- 13.5
- Pupils
- 1,562
Staff are counted as full-time equivalents in the November school workforce census, so the pupil figure here is that census’s own and will differ a little from the roll above, which is counted in January.
Ofsted
Last inspected March 2024
Good
An ungraded inspection, which checks whether a school remains at its previous grade rather than re-grading it. Inspected under the previous framework, which used its own four-point scale. Ofsted now publishes a report card grading several areas separately, so these grades are not directly comparable with a recent inspection’s.
Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)GCSE results
57%
3 points above the Reading average (54% across 18 schools)
50.4
1.2 below the Reading average (51.6 across 18 schools)
5th of 18 by our score, among the secondary schools in Reading we can score - 23 in total, the rest without enough published data. Local and same-phase on purpose: a national table mostly measures who attends.
All published measures2024/2025
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Attainment 8 | 50.4 |
| EBacc average point score | 4.61 |
| Entered the EBacc | 39% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 75% |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 57% |
| A level average points per entry | 34.39 |
| A level students | 141 |
From the Department for Education. Measures are published per year and suppressed where a cohort is too small, so some schools show fewer. There are no results for 2019/20 or 2020/21, when exams and assessments were cancelled.
Results over time4 years
Each measure on its own scale, over every year we hold.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 21/22 | 55% |
| 22/23 | 57% |
| 23/24 | 61% |
| 24/25 | 57% |
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 21/22 | 37.8 |
| 22/23 | 28.9 |
| 23/24 | 32.3 |
| 24/25 | 34.4 |
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 21/22 | -0.18 |
| 22/23 | +0.07 |
| 23/24 | +0.25 |
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 21/22 | 51.9 |
| 22/23 | 53.4 |
| 23/24 | 53.5 |
| 24/25 | 50.4 |
Surley Row, Emmer Green, Reading, RG4 8LR
Admissions
How to apply (opens in a new tab)
You apply through your council, not the school - even for academies and free schools. Applications close on 31 October, the year before starting.
Reading admissions (opens in a new tab)
The council publishes the oversubscription criteria and last year’s offer distances, which is the closest thing to knowing your chances.
If you are refused a place (opens in a new tab)
You can appeal, and you can join a waiting list at the same time. Accept whatever offer you get first - declining it can leave you with no place at all.
This school’s own admissions (opens in a new tab)
Schools that set their own criteria - faith schools, grammars, academies - publish them on their own site.
Contact
- Headteacher
- Laura Mathews
- Address
- Surley Row, Emmer Green, Reading, RG4 8LR
- Telephone
- 01189015800