Featherstone High School

About Featherstone High School

Featherstone High School is a mixed secondary and sixth form in Ealing that currently educates 1,773 pupils, nearly three times its official capacity of 600. That squeeze is reflected in admissions: for the 2025/26 intake, the school received 247 applications for 110 places, with 106 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.25. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 40.3%, well above the national average and a clear indicator of the school’s role in a diverse, high-need community. The headteacher is Nathan Walters. The school has no religious character and is not a boarding school. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, in March 2022, rated it Good overall, with leadership and management also judged Good. That marks a significant improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2015, when it was rated Requires Improvement.

Academically, Featherstone’s Progress 8 score for 2023/24 is -0.33, placing it in the ‘Below average’ band nationally. This is well below the Ealing local authority average of +0.5, and the school ranks 16th out of 16 secondary schools in the borough on this measure. Its Attainment 8 score is 40.6, and 52.3% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The EBacc average point score is 3.78, with 78.4% of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects. In the London region, Featherstone sits at the 89th percentile for Progress 8, and nationally at the 73rd percentile out of 3,141 schools. The school has a sixth form, though no separate A-level data is provided. The Ofsted ungraded inspection in 2022 confirmed the school remains Good, with no change in rating.

Featherstone offers a broad range of facilities including a swimming pool, astro turf, tennis courts, science labs, art studios, and a library. Sports on offer include martial arts, rugby, hockey, and gymnastics, while clubs range from Model UN and debate to eco club and chess. The school’s SEND provisions are extensive, covering specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. Given its high oversubscription and large roll, this is a school that local families clearly want, despite academic results that trail the borough average. It will suit families who value a large, inclusive, non-selective community with strong SEND support and a wide extracurricular offer, and who are comfortable with a school operating well beyond its intended capacity.

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