Windlestone School
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

Secondary
Special school
PUPILS
73
AGES
11 - 16
GENDER
Mixed
TYPE
Community special school

This school was closed.

Can I Get My Child Into This School?

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This pupil heat map shows where pupils currently attending the school live.
The concentration of pupils shows likelihood of admission based on distance criteria

Source: All attending pupils National School Census Data, ONS
03000 265896

This School Guide heat map has been plotted using official pupil data taken from the last School Census collected by the Department for Education. It is a visualisation of where pupils lived at the time of the annual School Census.

Our heat maps use groups of postcodes, not individual postcodes, and have naturally soft edges. All pupils are included in the mapping (i.e. children with siblings already at the school, high priority pupils and selective and/or religious admissions) but we may have removed statistical ‘outliers’ with more remote postcodes that do not reflect majority admissions.

For some schools, the heat map may be a useful indicator of the catchment area but our heat maps are not the same as catchment area maps. Catchment area maps, published by the school or local authority, are based on geographical admissions criteria and show actual cut-off distances and pre-defined catchment areas for a single admission year.

This information is provided as a guide only. The criteria in which schools use to allocate places in the event that they are oversubscribed can and do vary between schools and over time. These criteria can include distance from the school and sometimes specific catchment areas but can also include, amongst others, priority for siblings, children of a particular faith or specific feeder schools. Living in an area where children have previously attended a school does not guarantee admission to the school in future years. Always check with the school’s own admission authority for the current admission arrangements.

3 steps to help parents gather catchment information for a school:

  1. Look at our school catchment area guide for more information on heat maps. They give a useful indicator of the general areas that admit pupils to the school. This visualisation is based on all attending pupils present at the time of the annual School Census.
  2. Use the link to the Local Authority Contact (above) to find catchment area information based on a single admission year. This is very important if you are considering applying to a school.
  3. On each school page, use the link to visit the school website and find information on individual school admissions criteria. Geographical criteria are only applied after pupils have been admitted on higher priority criteria such as Looked After Children, SEN, siblings, etc.

How Does The School Perform?

Inadequate
NATIONAL AVG. 2.09
Ofsted Inspection
(26/02/2021)
Full Report - All Reports

Special schools provide a unique and distinctive educational environment to meet the needs of the pupils in their community. Undertaking standard tests may not be appropriate and we do not show performance data for special schools.

View exam results via the link below and contact the school to ask about measuring pupil progress.

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4.6:1
NATIONAL AVG. 16.3:1
Pupil/Teacher ratio
63.5%
NATIONAL AVG. 27.7%
Persistent Absence
79.5%
NATIONAL AVG. 27.1%
Free school meals
Chilton
Ferryhill
DL17 0HP
01388720337

School Description

School leaders do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve in school. Leaders’ expectations of pupils’ behaviour are also too low. Some pupils say they do not feel safe and happy in school. Pupils and some staff told us that quite a lot of bullying goes on in school. In some classrooms, pupils do not learn well. Pupils told us that they did not always understand the work teachers set. Some pupils said they could not always see how things they were asked to learn linked together. This meant they did not always understand the new learning they were asked to do. Pupils pointed out that sometimes when they do not understand what is expected of them, they start to become upset and angry and some leave the classroom. During our visit, we saw pupils running around the corridors and missing learning. In some parts of the school, pupils do feel safe and happy. For example, in rural science pupils told us they enjoy learning how to care for the school’s farm animals. However, not enough is being done at the moment to make school a happy place in which pupils learn well in all subjects.

Windlestone School Parent Reviews



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