Beacon Hill Community School

About Beacon Hill Community School

Beacon Hill Community School is a small 11-16 mixed state secondary in Cumberland, led by headteacher Tom Hailwood. It is one of 20 secondary schools in the local authority, and its most recent Progress 8 score places it 15th out of 17 ranked schools in the area, putting it in the bottom half of the LA table. The top-performing local peers are Keswick School, Cockermouth School, and Richard Rose Morton Academy, all of which achieved positive Progress 8 scores, whereas Beacon Hill’s score sits well below the LA average. The school is significantly undersubscribed relative to its capacity of 350, with just 137 pupils on roll, and it received 22 first-preference offers for its 22 available places in the 2025/26 admissions round, with 46 total applications — an oversubscription ratio of 2.09. Its religious character is listed as ‘does not apply’, and it does not have a sixth form or nursery provision.

Academically, the school’s most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2025 rated its overall effectiveness as ‘not judged’ due to a change in inspection framework, but the quality of education and leadership and management were both graded as ‘requires improvement’. Behaviour and attitudes, and personal development, were both rated ‘good’. In the 2023/24 exam year, Beacon Hill’s Progress 8 score was -1.37, which is well below average nationally and significantly lower than the Cumberland LA average of -0.44. Its Attainment 8 score was 30.7, and just 31.3% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The EBacc average point score was 2.67, and only 3.1% of pupils entered the EBacc. The school ranks in the bottom 2% nationally by Progress 8, and in the bottom 3% within the North West region.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a swimming pool, theatre, astro turf, tennis courts, and a chapel, alongside clubs such as art, orchestra, choir, chess, coding, and a newspaper club. Sports on offer include rugby, netball, football, hockey, basketball, dance, and martial arts. SEND provisions cover specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulties. Parent View responses from 25 respondents were largely positive: 84% would recommend the school, 92% agreed or strongly agreed their child is happy, and 88% felt their child is safe. However, 12% disagreed that the school has high expectations for their child, and 8% strongly disagreed that bullying is dealt with effectively. This school may suit families who value a small, community-focused setting with strong pastoral care and a wide range of extracurricular activities, but who are aware that academic outcomes are currently well below local and national averages.

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