Ranelagh School

About Ranelagh School

Ranelagh School’s most recent Ofsted inspection, in 2024, awarded it Outstanding across every graded category — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. That’s a clean sweep, and it matches the Outstanding rating the school held in its previous inspection back in 2015. But the single most telling metric for academic performance is Progress 8, which measures how much pupils improve between Key Stage 2 and GCSEs compared with the national average. Ranelagh’s Progress 8 score is 0.59, which the Department for Education bands as ‘well above average’. To put that in context, the average Progress 8 score across all secondary schools in Bracknell Forest is -0.01, meaning Ranelagh’s pupils are making significantly more progress than their peers elsewhere in the local authority. The school ranks first out of seven state secondaries in Bracknell Forest on this measure, and sits in the top 13 per cent nationally.

Digging deeper into the exam data, Ranelagh’s Attainment 8 score — the average grade achieved across eight GCSE subjects — is 58.3, which equates roughly to a strong B or low A grade per subject. The basics measure, which tracks pupils achieving a grade 5 or higher in both English and maths, stands at 71.7 per cent, well above the national benchmark. At A-level, the school’s average points per entry is 36.04, equivalent to a B- grade, and the best three A-levels average out at a B- as well. The sixth-form value-added score is 0.03, which is in line with the national average, suggesting students continue to make expected progress post-16. The EBacc entry rate is 35.8 per cent, and 29.5 per cent of pupils achieve a grade 5 or above across the EBacc subjects. Parent feedback is overwhelmingly positive: 90 per cent of respondents would recommend the school, and 91 per cent strongly agree or agree that their child is happy there.

Ranelagh is a Church of England secondary for pupils aged 11 to 18, with a current roll of 1101 against a capacity of 1010 — so it’s slightly over capacity. It’s heavily oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 483 applications for 174 places, with 251 first-preference applications and 168 first-preference offers. That’s an oversubscription ratio of 2.78, so competition is stiff. The school has a broad range of facilities including a swimming pool, theatre, astro turf, sports hall, science labs, music rooms, a chapel, and a sixth-form centre. It offers a wide array of clubs and activities — from coding and chess to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Model United Nations — and has specific SEND provisions for conditions including dyslexia, autistic spectrum disorder, and social, emotional and mental health needs. Only 5.4 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is low compared with the national average, and the school’s religious character may appeal to families looking for a faith-based environment.

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