Newlands Girls' School

About Newlands Girls' School

Newlands Girls' School in Maidenhead is one of the strongest academic performers in the country, and its most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in 2024, confirmed the school remains Outstanding. That rating has been consistent since its last full graded inspection in 2018, when it received top marks for overall effectiveness, leadership and management. The single most telling exam metric is the school's Progress 8 score of 0.66, which is classified as 'well above average'. To put that in context, the average Progress 8 score for state secondary schools in the Windsor and Maidenhead local authority is 0.18, so Newlands is adding significantly more value than its local peers. Nationally, the school ranks in the top 10 per cent of all schools for this measure, and it sits first out of ten schools in the local authority. The headteacher, Jo Capon, leads a school that is clearly focused on pushing academic outcomes well beyond the norm.

At GCSE, the school's Attainment 8 score is 58.8, and 90.1 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths. The EBacc average point score sits at 5.62, with 82.8 per cent of pupils entered for the EBacc combination of subjects. In the sixth form, the picture is similarly strong. The school's A-level value added score is 0.18, placing it in the 'above average' band, and the average points per entry is 34.9, which equates to a grade of C+. The best three A-levels average out at a B- grade, and 21.6 per cent of entries achieved AAB or higher. The sixth form itself was rated Good in the 2018 graded inspection, though the school as a whole remains Outstanding. With 90 pupils in the sixth form cohort, it is a sizeable but not enormous provision, and the data suggests students make strong progress from their starting points.

The school is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 470 applications for 191 places, an oversubscription ratio of 2.46, and 225 families put it as their first preference. Newlands is a girls' secondary with a co-educational sixth form, and it has a wide range of facilities including a swimming pool, theatre, sports hall, astro turf, tennis courts and a sixth form centre. The school supports a broad spectrum of SEND needs, including dyslexia, autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language communication needs, and social, emotional and mental health difficulties. With 12.7 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, it is not an especially affluent intake, but the academic results are exceptional. This is a school for families who want high academic standards, a strong extracurricular programme with clubs from chess to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and a proven track record of adding value across the ability range.

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