Queen's Park High School

Queen's Park High School is a good school across all key judgements: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, sixth-form provision, and leadership and management. Pupils and sixth-form students enjoy a calm, considerate culture with positive staff relationships that help them feel safe. Staff have high expectations and pupils typically achieve well, supported by a broad and ambitious curriculum, secure subject knowledge, effective SEND support, and targeted reading help. The sixth form is developing current students effectively from their starting points, although published Year 13 outcomes in 2024 were below national average. Safeguarding arrangements are effective. The school, local governing body, and trust understand their strengths and areas for improvement and have taken effective action to sustain and enhance provision. Leadership is clear about roles and responsibilities, staff workload and well-being are considered proactively, and careers education and personal development opportunities are comprehensive. Attendance has improved steadily, but a minority of pupils, including some disadvantaged pupils, remain persistently absent. Inspectors identified some inconsistencies in how teachers use checks on learning and match activities to pupils’ starting points, which means a minority of pupils, including some disadvantaged pupils, do not achieve as well as they could. This was the school’s first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is part of The Learning Trust.

Strengths

• Pupils and sixth-form students feel safe and benefit from positive relationships with staff.
• Staff have high expectations and pupils typically achieve well.
• The curriculum is broad and ambitious and prepares pupils for positive next steps.
• Teachers have secure subject knowledge and often provide suitably demanding activities.
• Pupils with SEND are accurately identified and effectively supported to overcome barriers.
• Targeted reading support helps pupils strengthen phonics, fluency, and comprehension.
• Personal development, careers education, and citizenship opportunities are comprehensive and age-appropriate.
• Attendance has improved steadily through collaborative work with parents, carers, and agencies.
• Leadership, governance, and trust arrangements are clear and effective, and staff well-being is considered.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• Some teachers do not use checks on learning well enough to identify gaps and decide what pupils should learn next.
• Some teachers do not match learning activities well to pupils’ starting points, so some pupils are not sufficiently challenged.
• A minority of pupils, including some disadvantaged pupils, are persistently absent and miss important education.

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 Queen's Park High School attended 90.8% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 26.4% 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, 7.0% of pupils at Queen's Park High School were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). 2 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 Queen's Park High School had 17.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 16.5% 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, 13.8% of pupils at Queen's Park High School were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 4.2% 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 2024–25 Queen's Park High School received £7,631 and spent £7,281 for each of its 791 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £473,000 (£598 per pupil).

Across all 4 schools of The Learning Trust, income was £7,535 and spending £7,399 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.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Chester · Cheshire West and Chester local authority: places and applications

Queen's Park High School is part of The Learning Trust, which runs 4 schools. The nearest others:

• Chester International School Chester
• Belgrave Primary School Chester
• Christleton High School Chester

What is Queen's Park High School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Queen's Park High School is Good, from an inspection in March 2025.

When was Queen's Park High School last inspected by Ofsted?

Queen's Park High School was last inspected in March 2025.

How many pupils does Queen's Park High School have?

Queen's Park High School has 792 pupils on roll.

What age range does Queen's Park High School cover?

Queen's Park High School for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are Queen's Park High School's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 48.6, and 53% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Queen's Park High School?

Queen's Park High School is at Queens Park Road, Handbridge, Chester, Cheshire, CH4 7AE.