Fairfield High School

About Fairfield High School

Fairfield High School is a mixed state secondary for 11-16 year olds in Herefordshire, and it is comfortably full. With 612 pupils on roll against a capacity of 600, the school is effectively operating at capacity, and demand is strong. For entry in 2025/26, there were 248 applications for 113 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.19 to one. Of those, 157 families put Fairfield as their first preference, and all 113 first-preference applicants were offered a place. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 17.4%, which is above the national average for secondary schools and suggests a genuinely comprehensive intake. The school is non-religious and has no sixth form, so all pupils leave at 16. Headteacher Paul Jennings leads a school that has held an Outstanding rating from Ofsted since at least 2013, and its most recent graded inspection in November 2023 confirmed that rating across every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management all received the top grade.

Academically, Fairfield is a strong performer, particularly when set against the local authority context. Its Progress 8 score of 0.49 is well above the Herefordshire average of -0.22, placing it second out of 15 schools in the county and in the top 25% nationally. The Attainment 8 score of 53.1 is solid, and 74.5% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths, compared with 52.9% at the higher grade 5 threshold. The English Baccalaureate entry rate is 44.1%, with 34.3% of pupils achieving the EBacc at grade 4 or above. Progress is positive across the board: English progress is 0.34, maths 0.25, and the EBacc subjects 0.53. The open element of Progress 8, which covers other academic and vocational qualifications, is particularly strong at 0.7. The school does not have a sixth form, so all results reflect the performance of its 16-year-old leavers.

The school offers a wide range of facilities including a swimming pool, astro turf, science labs, and a chapel, and sports provision covers basketball, hockey, football, cricket, tennis, and martial arts among others. Clubs include chess, science club, choir, drama, orchestra, art club, Model UN, and debate, so there is plenty for pupils to get involved with outside the classroom. SEND provision is comprehensive, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. Fairfield is a good fit for families who want a high-performing, oversubscribed comprehensive with a genuinely mixed intake and strong academic outcomes, particularly those who value a school that has sustained an Outstanding Ofsted rating over two inspections and delivers above-average progress across the curriculum.

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