Chancellor's School

About Chancellor's School

Chancellor's School sits in Welwyn Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and its headline Progress 8 score of 0.35 is a clear standout against the local authority average of 0.18 for secondary schools. That gap of 0.17 is meaningful — it places the school comfortably above the typical progress made by pupils across Hertfordshire. Nationally, that score lands it in the top 25% of all schools, and within the East of England region it ranks 80th out of 350. In its own local authority, it comes 29th out of 86 schools of the same type. The school is also the second-highest ranked in Welwyn Hatfield itself, out of five schools in that borough. It's worth noting that the school has improved significantly since its last graded inspection in 2014, when it was rated Requires Improvement; its most recent ungraded inspection in 2023 confirmed it remains Good, with leadership and management and sixth-form provision both judged Good.

Academically, the school's performance is strong across the board. At Key Stage 4, the Attainment 8 score is 52.9, and 72.2% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The EBacc average point score sits at 4.93, with 75.6% of pupils entered for the EBacc combination of subjects. Progress in English is notably higher than in maths — 0.37 compared with 0.08 — though both are positive. The school's Progress 8 banding is officially 'Above average'. At Key Stage 5, the picture is more mixed: the value added score is -0.09, which is banded as 'Average', and the average points per entry is 32.21, equivalent to a C+ grade. The best three A-levels average out at a C+ as well, with 8.4% of entries achieving AAB or higher. The sixth form is rated Good by Ofsted, and with 102 pupils in the data, it's a sizeable provision.

The school is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26, there were 669 applications for 202 places, with 236 first-preference applications and 164 offers made to first-preference applicants — an oversubscription ratio of 3.31. That tells you it's a popular choice locally. Facilities include a swimming pool, sports hall, gymnasium, astro turf, music rooms, an ICT suite, and a dedicated Sixth Form Centre. Sports on offer range from rowing and rugby to dance and badminton, and clubs include everything from Model UN and Young Enterprise to gardening and coding. The school has a broad SEND offer, covering dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disabilities, and autistic spectrum disorder. It's a mixed, non-religious state secondary with a sixth form, and suits families looking for a school where pupils make above-average progress from their starting points, particularly in English, and where the range of extracurriculars is wide.

Key Details

Frequently Asked Questions About Chancellor's School

Helpful Guides for Parents