New College Durham

About New College Durham

New College Durham, a state secondary for students aged 16 to 99, sits slightly below the County Durham average when it comes to academic progress. Its Progress 8 score of -0.25 is a touch weaker than the local authority average of -0.21, meaning pupils here make marginally less progress than their peers across the county. This places the school 22nd out of 31 similar schools in the area, putting it in the bottom half of the local league table. Nationally, it ranks in the 68th percentile, which is a middling position. The school is heavily skewed towards disadvantaged intake, with 61.1% of pupils eligible for free school meals, a figure that is notably high and likely influences its headline metrics. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2022, the school was rated Requires Improvement across all categories, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. This was a downgrade from its previous inspection in 2018, which also rated it Requires Improvement overall but had judged leadership and management as Good.

Looking at the exam results for the 2023/24 academic year, the picture is mixed. The school's Attainment 8 score sits at 36.3, which is below the national average, and only 45.3% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The EBacc entry rate is low at 28.3%, and no pupils entered the full EBacc combination at grade 5 or above. The Progress 8 breakdown shows that pupils performed worst in maths, with a score of -0.49, and in the EBacc subjects, at -0.52. English was closer to the average at -0.16, while the open bucket of qualifications actually showed a positive score of 0.12. The school's EBacc average point score is 2.96. Despite the overall Requires Improvement rating, the Progress 8 banding is classified as Average, which suggests that while the school is not excelling, it is not significantly underperforming compared to schools with similar intakes. The sixth form provision was not inspected in the most recent Ofsted visit, so there is no current judgement on that phase.

New College Durham is a 16-99 institution, meaning it caters primarily to post-16 students and adults, and it does not have a separate sixth form or nursery. It was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 academic year, with 148 applications for 89 places, and 82 first-preference offers made. The school offers a wide range of facilities including a swimming pool, sports hall, playing fields, music rooms, art studios, and a sixth form centre. Sports on offer include rowing, rugby, and gymnastics, while clubs range from Young Enterprise and debate to coding and chess. The school has a strong SEND provision, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, physical disabilities, and autistic spectrum disorder, including a resourced provision. This makes it a practical choice for families in County Durham whose teenagers need specialist support in a post-16 setting, though the Requires Improvement rating means parents should visit and ask about recent improvements.

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