Long Road Sixth Form College

About Long Road Sixth Form College

Long Road Sixth Form College is a large state sixth form in Cambridge, and its most recent Ofsted inspection judged it Good overall, with Outstanding features in both Behaviour and Attitudes and Personal Development. That places it among a minority of schools in Cambridgeshire — only eight out of 39 secondary schools in the local authority hold an Outstanding rating overall, though Long Road’s partial Outstanding grades suggest strong day-to-day culture and student support. The most telling academic metric for a 16-19 institution is its Progress 8 score, which measures how much students improve between GCSE and A-level compared with peers nationally. Long Road’s Progress 8 score is not listed in the available data, but the local authority average for all schools is 0.17, meaning students in Cambridgeshire typically make slightly more progress than the national average. Given the college’s Good rating and its Outstanding behaviour and personal development grades, it is reasonable to expect that students here are well supported to achieve solid outcomes, even if the exact progress figure is not published.

The college does not publish its own A-level or vocational results in the data provided, so the best proxy for academic strength is its Ofsted profile and local context. The college’s Good overall rating, combined with Outstanding marks for behaviour and personal development, indicates a learning environment where students are engaged and well looked after. In Cambridgeshire, the average Progress 8 score across all schools is 0.17, which is above the national baseline of zero, so the local authority as a whole performs well. Long Road’s closest academic peers in the area include Chesterton Community College (ranking score 1.05), St Bede’s Inter-Church School (1.02), and Sawston Village College (0.87), all of which are high-performing schools. While Long Road’s exact ranking among these is not given, its Good rating suggests it is a solid choice for post-16 study, particularly for students who value a supportive atmosphere alongside academic rigour.

Long Road is a non-selective, mixed sixth form with a capacity of 2,600 students, making it one of the largest post-16 providers in the region. Its facilities are extensive and include a swimming pool, astro turf, playing fields, a theatre, science labs, music rooms, and a dedicated sixth form centre. The college offers a wide range of extracurricular activities, from orchestra and art club to coding, book club, Eco Club, Duke of Edinburgh, and Model UN. Sports on offer include hockey, tennis, athletics, swimming, netball, cricket, dance, rowing, and rounders. There is no nursery provision and it is not a boarding school. The college has a chapel on site, though its religious character is listed as “Does not apply,” so this likely serves as a multi-use space. For families in Cambridge looking for a large, well-resourced sixth form with strong pastoral care and a broad enrichment programme, Long Road is a practical option, especially given its Good rating and Outstanding personal development grade.

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