Holmer Green Senior School

Holmer Green Senior School is performing securely overall. Inspectors judged personal development and wellbeing, and post-16 provision, as strong standard, while achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance met the expected standard. Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture and pupils who feel safe. The school's notable strengths are its support for pupils' personal development, especially disadvantaged pupils, its broad curriculum and extra-curricular offer, effective careers guidance, a strong sixth form, and improving attendance and behaviour. Pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils generally do well from their starting points, and leaders, governors, and staff work effectively together. The main areas for improvement are consistency in teaching quality across the school, especially the use of checks on understanding to build securely from pupils' starting points; ensuring SEND plans are consistently understood and implemented; and giving key stage 3 pupils more opportunities to develop writing accuracy and fluency. The school is a single academy trust with a specially resourced provision for speech, language and communication needs.

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open and positive safeguarding culture.
• Personal development and wellbeing are a strong standard across the school.
• Pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, are very well supported in their personal development.
• Pupils have rich knowledge about relationships, sex and health education and how to stay safe online and offline.
• Pupils with SEND are very well supported through bespoke interventions.
• Pupils learn a broad range of life skills that build confidence, resilience and readiness.
• Pupils develop deep knowledge of different faiths, cultures and protected characteristics.
• A broad range of trips, clubs, musical performances and sports is accessible to all pupils.
• Pupils receive regular and thorough careers guidance, with tailored support for disadvantaged pupils.
• Sixth-form provision is a strong standard, with a broad curriculum matching students' interests and aspirations.
• Sixth-form students access high-quality teaching and produce detailed, accurate work.
• Sixth-form students receive highly effective support for SEND and disadvantage.
• Sixth-form students increasingly achieve positive progress and secure outcomes.
• Sixth-form students flourish in leadership roles and contribute positively to the community.
• Pupils typically achieve well in national examinations and are prepared for their next steps.
• Pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils generally do well from their starting points.
• Pupils remember previous learning and apply it to new learning.
• Pupils who are behind in reading close these gaps quickly.
• Leaders use highly effective strategies to improve attendance, and most pupils attend regularly.
• Behaviour expectations are clear, and the school environment is typically calm and orderly.
• Bullying and discrimination are uncommon and are addressed swiftly.
• The curriculum is well sequenced and ambitious, helping pupils build knowledge over time.
• Teachers use consistent routines, know their subjects well and generally explain content clearly.
• Reading and communication are prioritised, and pupils who need catch-up support receive it.
• Additional needs are identified quickly and accurately, and SEND provision is generally well matched.
• The specially resourced SEND provision provides effective and well-matched support.
• Leaders make effective use of additional funding for disadvantaged pupils.
• Governors understand their roles well and hold leaders to account effectively.
• Leaders are considerate of staff wellbeing and support early-career teachers.
• Parents and carers are typically confident in the school and recognise leaders' high aspirations.

Areas for Improvement

• Teaching quality is not consistently high across the school.
• Checks on pupils' understanding are sometimes not effective or meaningfully used to build knowledge from pupils' starting points.
• Teaching activities are sometimes not precisely matched to pupils' needs.
• Plans to meet the needs of pupils with SEND are not consistently understood and implemented by staff across the school.
• Staff are sometimes less effective at reducing the specific learning barriers that pupils with SEND may face.
• Pupils in key stage 3, including those with SEND, do not always have sufficient opportunities to develop the accuracy and fluency of their writing.
• Assessment systems are still being improved so that writing quality and gaps in pupils' knowledge can be addressed more swiftly.
• Pupils' learning experiences vary because teaching quality is not yet consistent.

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 Holmer Green Senior School attended 92.5% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 18.2% 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, 6.7% of pupils at Holmer Green Senior School were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). No 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 Holmer Green Senior School had 16.2 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 18.0% 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, 16.6% of pupils at Holmer Green Senior School were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 4.4% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

The school has resourced provision with 17 pupils.

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 2024–25 Holmer Green Senior School received £7,297 and spent £7,191 for each of its 1,243 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £1,431,000 (£1,151 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). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

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What is Holmer Green Senior School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Holmer Green Senior School is Expected standard, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was Holmer Green Senior School last inspected by Ofsted?

Holmer Green Senior School was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does Holmer Green Senior School have?

Holmer Green Senior School has 1,244 pupils on roll.

What age range does Holmer Green Senior School cover?

Holmer Green Senior School for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are Holmer Green Senior School's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 47.6, and 56% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Holmer Green Senior School?

Holmer Green Senior School is at Parish Piece, Holmer Green, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP15 6SP.