Our Lady's Catholic College

Voluntary aided school·Secondary school Lancaster, Lancashire·LA1 2RX
Composite score
51.6
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#2,337
National rank
#296
In North West
#55
In Lancashire
Top 74%
Nationally

Performance (KS4 GCSE)

Attainment 8 score
41.3
National avg ≈ 46
Progress 8 score
—
% achieving 9–5 in English & Maths
35%
% achieving 9–4 in English & Maths
59%
% EBacc grade 5+
1%
EBacc average points score
3.31

Ofsted judgements

Legacy framework · Read full report ↗

Overall effectiveness
Requires improvement
Quality of education
Requires improvement
Behaviour and attitudes
Good
Personal development
Good
Leadership and management
Good
Safeguarding effective?
Yes
Sixth form provision
Good

Getting a place

Offered a place after putting it first
99%
132 first choices, 166 places
First choices per place
0.80
fewer first choices than places
Applications naming the school
459
any preference, for 166 places
First preferences per place, last five years▶ 0.00
00.511.5
1 per place
0.8820221.1020230.7320240.7920250.802026

Red dashed line = one first choice per place. How to read this

Lancashire does not publish how far from the school the last child offered a Year 7 place lived, so there is no cut-off distance to show for Our Lady's Catholic College. Ask the school or the council how places were allocated this year.

Application figures: DfE, school level applications and offers (2026 intake).

School profile

Age range
11–18
Pupils on roll
999
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Admissions
Non-Selective

Pupil background

% FSM ever-6
40.6%
Typical secondary: 27.5%
% EAL
14.0%
Typical secondary: 12.0%

Special educational needs

% SEN support
22.4%
Typical secondary: 13.7%
% with an EHC plan
3.4%
Typical secondary: 2.9%

Attendance

Overall absence
10.3%
Typical secondary: 8.9%
Persistently absent
33.5%
Typical secondary: 25.7%

Staffing & funding

Pupils per teacher
13.5
Typical secondary: 16.7
Spend per pupil
£8,849
Typical secondary: £7,815

“Typical” = the median secondary school in England. What this means

What pupils do next

The share of this school's Year 11 leavers in education, training or employment for at least two terms afterwards.

In education, training or work
90%
179 pupils tracked
Stayed in education
81%
Apprenticeship
7%
Employment
2%

DfE, KS4 destination measures.

Nearby secondary schools

Location

About Our Lady's Catholic College

Our Lady's Catholic College is a secondary school in Lancaster, Lancashire, classified by the DfE as a voluntary aided school with a Roman Catholic religious character. Around 999 pupils aged 11 to 18 attend the school. The school holds a 'Requires improvement' judgement from Ofsted. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 41.3, below the national average of 46. That marks an improvement of 3.6 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.

35% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, below the national average of about 45%. 59% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. 99% of the families who made Our Lady's Catholic College 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. After Year 11, 90% of its leavers went on to education, an apprenticeship or work that they stayed in for at least two terms. Overall pupil absence was 10.3%. There are about 13.5 pupils per teacher. The school serves a community with above-average levels of disadvantage: about 41% 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. If you are considering Our Lady's Catholic College, it may be worth asking how leaders have responded to Ofsted's findings and what has changed since the inspection. 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.

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