John Hanson Community School

About John Hanson Community School

John Hanson Community School sits in Test Valley, within the Hampshire local authority, and is one of five secondary schools in the borough. Among those five, it ranks fifth by Progress 8 score, placing it at the bottom of its immediate local table. The top-performing peers in the wider Test Valley area include Sparsholt College Hampshire, Lift Winton, and Thornden School, all of which post significantly higher ranking scores. The school is a mixed, non-denominational state secondary for pupils aged 11 to 16, with no sixth form. It is currently oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 401 applications for 180 places, with 219 first-preference applications and 175 first-preference offers made. That works out to 2.23 applicants per place, reflecting solid local demand despite the modest ranking. Headteacher Erin Sudds leads a school that has 993 pupils on roll, slightly above its official capacity of 980.

Academically, John Hanson’s most recent Ofsted inspection in March 2024 confirmed the school remains Good, an improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2016. The graded inspection in October 2018 had already upgraded it to Good, and the ungraded visit in 2024 found it holding that standard. In the 2023/24 exam results, the school’s Progress 8 score was -0.28, which is below the national average and also below the Hampshire LA average of -0.17. The Attainment 8 score was 40.8, and 57.5% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths, with 32.5% reaching the higher grade 5 threshold. The EBacc average point score was 3.58, with 41.5% of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects. The school’s Progress 8 banding is classified as Below average, and it ranks 38th out of 80 similar schools across Hampshire.

The school offers a practical range of facilities including science labs, music rooms, a swimming pool, an ICT suite, astro turf, a library, and a chapel. Sports provision covers basketball, football, rugby, rounders, cross country, tennis, and badminton, while extracurricular clubs include drama, coding, eco club, gardening, orchestra, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and debate. For pupils with additional needs, the school lists SEND provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulties. With no sixth form, families will need to plan for post-16 options elsewhere. The school suits families in Test Valley who want a well-resourced secondary with a broad club programme and a Good Ofsted rating, and who are comfortable with results that sit below both the local and national averages.

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