Cranbourne

About Cranbourne

Cranbourne, a mixed state secondary in Basingstoke for pupils aged 11 to 16, was rated Good in its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2021, a clear step up from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2019. The school’s leadership and management were singled out as Outstanding, which helps explain the turnaround. On the most telling exam metric, Progress 8, Cranbourne scored -0.13 in the 2023/24 results. That is a fraction below the national average of zero, but it actually sits above the Hampshire local authority average of -0.17, meaning pupils here make slightly more progress than the typical student across the county. The school ranks 4th out of 7 schools in Basingstoke and Deane on this measure, and 31st out of 80 similar schools across the whole of Hampshire. With an Attainment 8 score of 43.8, students leave with a solid set of GCSE grades, and 67.1 per cent achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths.

Digging deeper into the exam data, the school’s Progress 8 score is made up of a mixed picture. Pupils did best in the EBacc subjects, where progress was essentially flat at -0.01, while the open element (other GCSEs) dragged the overall figure down to -0.36. The English and maths buckets were both close to average, at -0.04 and -0.07 respectively. Only 18.6 per cent of pupils entered the EBacc suite of subjects, and 11.4 per cent achieved a grade 4 or above across all five components. The school’s EBacc average point score was 3.83. Ofsted’s breakdown from the 2021 inspection rated behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and quality of education all as Good, with leadership and management Outstanding. The school has no sixth form, so all pupils leave at 16, and it is noticeably oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 417 applications for 241 places, with 165 first-preference offers made.

Cranbourne serves a community with above-average disadvantage, with 27.1 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, well above the national secondary average. The school is well equipped to support a wide range of needs, with provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language needs, autistic spectrum disorder, and physical disabilities, plus a resourced provision. Facilities include science labs, a sports hall, tennis courts, a library, and a dining hall, and there is a chapel on site. Sports on offer include football, rugby, netball, cricket, swimming, gymnastics, and athletics, while clubs range from orchestra and art club to Model UN, drama, and a newspaper. This is a school that has improved its Ofsted rating decisively, performs slightly above the local average on progress, and is popular enough to be oversubscribed — a solid, well-led option for families in Basingstoke who want a mainstream state school without a sixth form.

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