Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre

About Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre

Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre holds a Good rating from its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2021, a significant improvement from its previous Requires Improvement grade in 2010. The school's Progress 8 score, which measures how much pupils improve between the end of primary school and their GCSEs, stands at -0.13. This places it below the local authority average of 0.05 for Brighton and Hove, meaning pupils make slightly less progress than peers across the area. Nationally, this score ranks the school in the 58th percentile, putting it in the bottom half of all schools in England. Within Brighton and Hove, Hove Park sits 7th out of 10 secondary schools on this metric. The school's Attainment 8 score is 43.3, and 62.6% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in English and maths, though this drops to 41% when looking at grade 5 or above. A notable 74.3% of pupils entered the English Baccalaureate, though only 30.2% achieved it at grade 4 or above.

At GCSE level, the school's strongest Progress 8 performance is in maths (-0.03) and the EBacc subjects (-0.04), while English (-0.11) and open subjects (-0.31) show slightly weaker progress. The sixth form, though small with just nine pupils in the data, achieves an average points per entry of 15.56, equivalent to a D- grade, with a value added score of -0.34 and an 'Average' progress banding. The school's most recent graded inspection in 2013 rated both leadership and management and overall effectiveness as Good, and the 2021 ungraded inspection confirmed the school 'remains Good'. The school has a large capacity of 1,664 but currently houses 948 pupils, suggesting room for growth. It is heavily oversubscribed for Year 7 entry in 2025/26, receiving 621 applications for 162 places, with 120 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 3.83 applicants per place.

Hove Park offers a broad range of facilities including a sports hall, science labs, ICT suite, art studios, tennis courts, playing fields, astro turf, and a sixth form centre. Sports provision includes rounders, cross country, athletics, swimming, rowing, and badminton, while clubs cover newspaper, coding, debate, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and drama. The school has extensive SEND provisions, supporting pupils with specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, multi-sensory impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder, plus a resourced provision. With 35.6% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a diverse intake. This is a large, oversubscribed secondary that suits families who value a Good-rated school with strong EBacc entry rates and a wide range of extracurricular activities, but who are aware that academic progress is slightly below the local average.

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