Litherland High School

About Litherland High School

Litherland High School is a state secondary for 11 to 16 year olds in Sefton, and the numbers suggest it is a school that local families actively want. For the 2025/26 intake, the school received 400 applications for 172 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.33. Of those, 197 were first-preference applications, and 160 first-preference offers were made. That level of demand is a strong signal from parents who know the school. The school is led by headteacher Claire Hallwood and has a mixed intake, with 48.4 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, in February 2024, rated the school Good across all five categories: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. That is a notable improvement from its previous inspection in January 2022, when it was rated Requires Improvement.

Academically, the school faces clear challenges. Its Progress 8 score for the 2023/24 academic year was -0.68, which is well below average nationally and places it 10th out of 14 schools in Sefton. For context, the local authority average Progress 8 score is -0.59, so Litherland sits below that benchmark. The Attainment 8 score is 36.6, and the basics measure at grade 4 or above in English and maths stands at 47.4 per cent, though that drops to 15.3 per cent at grade 5 or above. The EBacc average point score is 2.89, and only 8.8 per cent of pupils entered the EBacc combination of subjects. Progress in maths (-0.88) and the EBacc bucket (-0.99) are the weakest areas, while the open element of Progress 8 (-0.36) is less negative. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom 10 per cent of schools by Progress 8.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a theatre, astro turf, science labs, art studios, and a gymnasium, plus a chapel on site. Sports on offer include martial arts, rugby, hockey, and athletics, and there are clubs such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Model UN, coding, and Young Enterprise. The school has a substantial SEND provision list, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. There is no sixth form, so pupils will need to move on after Year 11. Litherland High School is a good fit for families who value a school that has improved rapidly from a Requires Improvement rating to Good, and who are comfortable with a setting where academic outcomes are below the local average but where the school is clearly popular and oversubscribed in its community.

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