The Astley Cooper School

The Astley Cooper School at a glance

Located in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, The Astley Cooper School is a secondary school, classified by the DfE as a community school. The school educates roughly 947 pupils aged 11 to 18. Ofsted judged the school to be 'Good' at its most recent inspection. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 34.7, well below the national average of 46. That is down 2.5 points in its Attainment 8 score on the previous year. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it in the lower half of secondary schools nationally.

27% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, well below the national average of about 45%. 44% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. 96% of the families who made The Astley Cooper School their first choice were offered a Year 7 place for September 2026, even though the school made at least as many offers as it had first choices - the rest withdrew, moved or fell outside a priority group. The council's own allocation figures show the last child offered a place for 2026 lived 1.11 miles away in a straight line — that distance is not a fixed catchment and moves each year. After Year 11, 87% of its leavers went on to education, an apprenticeship or work that they stayed in for at least two terms. Overall pupil absence was 12.7%. There are about 14.6 pupils per teacher. The school serves a community with above-average levels of disadvantage: about 37% of pupils have been eligible for free school meals in the last six years, compared with roughly 24% nationally — useful context when reading the results above. When you visit, you might ask how the school stretches its higher-attaining pupils and supports those who need to catch up. This overview is generated automatically from the latest published DfE performance tables and Ofsted data; figures are rounded, and you can check the originals via the official links above.