Heathcote School & Science College

About Heathcote School & Science College

Heathcote School & Science College in Waltham Forest holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained across both its most recent inspections. The school’s most telling academic metric is its Progress 8 score of -0.37, which places it in the ‘below average’ banding nationally. This means that, on average, pupils achieved nearly four-tenths of a grade less per subject than students with similar starting points across England. In the local authority, that score ranks Heathcote 17th out of 19 secondary schools, and within London it sits in the 90th percentile, indicating significant room for improvement compared with regional peers. The local authority average Progress 8 score is -0.07, so Heathcote’s figure is notably weaker than the typical Waltham Forest school. The Attainment 8 score of 43.4, meanwhile, suggests that the average pupil leaves with the equivalent of around four or five strong passes at GCSE.

Looking more closely at the breakdown, the school’s strongest Progress 8 component is English, where the score is -0.04 — essentially in line with the national average. Maths is weaker at -0.44, and the EBacc subjects as a whole sit at -0.49. Just over half of pupils (52.6%) entered the EBacc suite of qualifications, and 27.8% achieved a strong pass in both English and maths. At sixth form, the picture is brighter: the value-added score of 0.38 is rated ‘above average’, meaning students typically make better progress than similar students nationally. The average A-level grade is a C+, with 33.1 points per entry. Only 9.4% of entries achieved AAB or higher, though the cohort of 70 students is relatively small. The sixth form provision was also graded Good by Ofsted in the most recent inspection.

Heathcote is heavily oversubscribed: for 175 Year 7 places in the 2025/26 intake, the school received 529 applications — a ratio of over three applicants per place. Of those, 196 put it as their first preference, and 172 first-preference offers were made. The school has a large site with strong facilities including a swimming pool, astro turf, theatre, and a dedicated sixth form centre. It also has a resourced provision for pupils with special educational needs, covering a wide range of needs from dyslexia to autistic spectrum disorder and physical disabilities. With 28.5% of pupils eligible for free school meals — above the national average — Heathcote serves a diverse, urban community. It will suit families who value a broad curriculum, a strong sixth form, and a school that is popular locally despite its mixed academic outcomes.

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