De La Salle School

About De La Salle School

De La Salle School is a mixed Roman Catholic secondary in St. Helens that is currently operating very close to its full capacity of 1,200 pupils, with 1,185 on roll. The school serves a community with a notably high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, at 23.8%, which is well above the national average for secondary schools. Demand for places is strong: for the 2025/26 academic year, the school received 533 applications for 207 places, an oversubscription ratio of 2.57, and 187 of those applications were first-preference offers. This level of demand suggests the school is a popular choice locally, despite its current Ofsted rating. The school does not have a sixth form, so pupils leave at 16, and it is one of 11 state secondaries in the St. Helens local authority, where only one school—Carmel College, 1.4 km away—currently holds an Outstanding rating.

Academically, De La Salle was rated Requires Improvement overall in its most recent graded inspection in June 2023, a rating it also held in its previous inspection in February 2020. However, the breakdown is more nuanced: inspectors judged behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management all as Good, with quality of education the area requiring improvement. The school does not publish Progress 8 or Attainment 8 scores in the available data, so it is not possible to compare its academic performance directly to the local authority average Progress 8 of -0.31. Parents considering the school will want to look closely at the quality of education rating and ask how the school plans to address the inspectors' concerns, particularly given that the school has been in this category since at least 2020.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including a swimming pool, sports hall, astro turf, art studios, and a chapel, plus a broad set of extracurricular clubs such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, choir, orchestra, and science club. Its SEND provisions are extensive, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disabilities, and autistic spectrum disorder, with a resourced provision on site. This makes it a potentially strong fit for families who need a mainstream secondary with robust SEND support. Given its oversubscription, families should be prepared to apply early and ensure they meet the Roman Catholic admissions criteria. The school suits families who value a faith-based environment, a wide range of activities, and a school that is well-integrated into its local community, but who are comfortable with a school that is still working to improve its academic rating.

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