Parklands High School

About Parklands High School

Parklands High School in Chorley was rated Good in its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023, a rating it has held consistently across both its graded inspections. The school’s most telling academic metric is its Progress 8 score of 0.39, which places it well above the national average. This means that, on average, pupils at Parklands achieve nearly half a grade more per subject than students with similar starting points across England. The school ranks 3rd out of 6 secondary schools in Chorley on this measure, and 65th out of 445 in the North West region, putting it in the top 15 per cent regionally. Nationally, it sits in the top 22 per cent of all schools. The Progress 8 banding is officially classed as “Above average”, and the school’s Attainment 8 score of 50.8 confirms that pupils leave with solid GCSE results across eight core subjects.

Breaking down the Progress 8 figures reveals particular strength in English, where the score reaches 0.76, meaning pupils make nearly a full grade more progress than the national average. Maths progress is also positive at 0.21, while the EBacc element sits slightly below average at -0.04. The basics measure shows that 78.2 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths, well above the national average. However, only 11.4 per cent of pupils entered the full EBacc combination, and just 9.5 per cent achieved it at grade 5 or above. The school’s EBacc average point score is 4.04. Compared with the Lancashire local authority average Progress 8 score of -0.11, Parklands is performing significantly better than most schools in the area, and it ranks 14th out of 90 secondary schools across the whole county.

Parklands is a non-selective, mixed 11-16 school with no sixth form, and it is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, it received 773 applications for 214 places, an oversubscription ratio of 3.61. Of those, 253 families put it as their first preference, and 199 first-preference offers were made. The school serves a community with 27.6 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, slightly above the national average. Facilities include a gymnasium, library, ICT suite, tennis courts, playing fields, and a chapel. Sports on offer range from badminton and hockey to martial arts and swimming, while clubs include choir, drama, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, coding, and eco club. SEND provision covers specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech and language needs, social and emotional mental health support, and physical disabilities. This is a school that suits families who value strong academic progress in a well-subscribed, community-focused setting without a sixth form.

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