Darwen Vale High School

About Darwen Vale High School

Darwen Vale High School’s headline Progress 8 score of -0.29 sits well below the Blackburn with Darwen local authority average of 0.05, placing it in the ‘Below average’ national banding. That gap matters: while the LA average suggests pupils across the borough typically make slightly more progress than the national baseline, Darwen Vale’s pupils leave with about a quarter of a grade less per subject than similar students nationally. The school ranks 7th out of 10 secondary schools in the LA, putting it in the bottom half locally, and 277th out of 445 in the North West region. However, this isn’t the full story. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024, the school was rated Good across all categories — a significant jump from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2020. That turnaround in leadership and behaviour suggests the current Progress 8 figure may reflect a cohort that started under the old regime, and the school is now on a clearer upward trajectory.

Academically, the picture is mixed. Attainment 8 sits at 42.5, meaning the average pupil achieves just under a grade 5 across their best eight subjects. The basics measure — pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in both English and maths — stands at 43.2%, which is reasonable for a school with 31.4% of pupils eligible for free school meals. English is the weaker side: Progress 8 for English is -0.47, compared with -0.21 for maths. The EBacc entry rate is low at 15.6%, and only 8.3% of pupils achieved the EBacc at grade 5 or above. The school’s EBacc average point score of 3.58 reflects a narrow academic diet for most pupils. That said, the Ofsted report from January 2024 judged the quality of education as Good, and behaviour and attitudes also Good — a marked improvement from the previous inspection when both were rated Requires Improvement. For parents weighing up the data, the key question is whether the 2024 cohort’s results will show the same improvement the inspection found.

Darwen Vale is a large 11-16 mixed state school with 1,071 pupils against a capacity of 1,200, and it is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, 486 families applied for 235 places, with 218 first-preference offers made. That’s a ratio of just over two applicants per place, so it’s a popular choice locally. The school offers a wide range of sports including rowing, martial arts, and swimming, plus clubs like Young Enterprise, Model UN, and coding. Facilities include a theatre, chapel, science labs, and tennis courts. SEND provision is broad, covering dyslexia, autism, speech and language needs, and physical disabilities. There is no sixth form, so pupils will need to move on at 16. For families in Blackburn with Darwen who want a school that has demonstrably improved its behaviour and leadership under headteacher Jessica Giraud, and which offers strong extracurricular breadth, Darwen Vale is worth a close look — though the academic data suggests it’s still playing catch-up with the LA’s stronger performers.

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