Marden High School

Marden High School is performing well overall. Inspectors found a highly positive learning culture, with pupils achieving very highly at the end of Year 11 across subjects and over time, including disadvantaged pupils. Attendance is high, behaviour is strong, and pupils feel safe, respected and part of a welcoming community. Inclusion is a particular strength: pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other vulnerable pupils are identified accurately and supported effectively to make secure progress. Safeguarding standards are met.

Strengths

• Pupils achieve very highly, with consistently high outcomes at the end of Year 11 across subjects and over time, including for disadvantaged pupils.
• Pupils are very well prepared for the next stage of education, employment or training.
• Leaders ensure pupils develop important reading, handwriting and mathematics skills, with gaps closed quickly.
• Pupils, including those with SEND and those known to social care, demonstrate detailed knowledge and produce high-quality work.
• Attendance is high, and leaders use thorough monitoring and early, tailored support to prevent attendance issues escalating.
• Behaviour is strong, with a respectful culture, clear routines, low suspensions, and pupils reporting that bullying is rare and dealt with effectively.
• Inclusion is a strength: leaders identify needs accurately, share information well, and staff use highly effective strategies to support all pupils.
• Leaders work well with external agencies, parents and carers, and use additional funding effectively to close gaps.
• The curriculum is carefully designed and sequenced so pupils' knowledge builds over time.
• Teachers generally have secure subject knowledge, explain learning clearly, check understanding and address misconceptions quickly.
• Staff adapt teaching effectively to meet the needs of all pupils, including pupils with SEND.
• Leaders demonstrate the school's ethos and act quickly on improvement priorities, successfully managing a significant increase in pupil numbers.
• Staff are overwhelmingly positive about support for their wellbeing and workload.
• Governors scrutinise leaders' work effectively and meet statutory duties.
• The personal development and wellbeing programme is coherent, responsive, and supported by a rich offer of enrichment activities.
• Careers education is effective, with all pupils receiving a careers interview and most progressing to appropriate destinations.
• Pupils feel safe, valued and part of a welcoming community, and they take responsibility for their behaviour and learning.

Areas for Improvement

• Some pupils in key stage 4 are not secure in their understanding of different world faiths.
• Leaders do not consistently ensure that training time focuses sharply on whole-school priorities and has positive impact.
• Leaders' systems and processes for checking different aspects of the school's work, such as training time, do not always ensure actions have the intended impact.
• Curriculum and teaching are not yet consistently strong across all staff, and leaders should continue embedding improvements so all staff teach the curriculum consistently well.
• Pupils' knowledge and skills in personal, social and health education and religious education, particularly in key stage 4, need further development.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Marden High School attended 94.5% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 12.8% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 23.4%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 4.5% of pupils at Marden High School were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). 3 pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Marden High School had 17.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 1.1% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 14.1%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 15.0% of pupils at Marden High School were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 1.5% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded secondary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2025–26 Marden High School received £6,615 and spent £7,120 for each of its 1,014 pupils. It ended the year with a deficit of £732,000 (-£722 per pupil).

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24).

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in North Shields · North Tyneside local authority: places and applications

Marden High School is part of The North Tyneside Learning Trust, which runs 29 schools. The nearest others:

• Monkhouse Primary School North Shields
• Southlands School North Shields
• King Edward Primary School North Tyneside
• Marden Bridge Middle School Whitley Bay
• Monkseaton High School Whitley Bay
• Rockcliffe First School Whitley Bay
• Appletree Gardens First School Whitley Bay
• Monkseaton Coastal School Whitley Bay
• Woodlawn School Whitley Bay
• Whitley Bay High School Whitley Bay

What is Marden High School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Marden High School is Expected standard, from an inspection in September 2026.

When was Marden High School last inspected by Ofsted?

Marden High School was last inspected in September 2026.

How many pupils does Marden High School have?

Marden High School has 1,014 pupils on roll.

What age range does Marden High School cover?

Marden High School for pupils aged 11 to 16.

What are Marden High School's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 55.0, and 66% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Marden High School?

Marden High School is at Hartington Road, Cullercoats, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE30 3RZ.