Cranbourne
Wessex Close, Basingstoke, RG21 3NP
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Community school
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Miss Sarah Conlon
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- SEN provision
- SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty
- Constituency
- Basingstoke
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 900
- Pupils on roll
- 1,088
- URN
- 116432
- Local authority
- Hampshire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01256868600
About this school
Cranbourne is a community secondary school in Basingstoke. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 1,088 pupils on roll.
Ofsted has inspected Cranbourne, and its latest judgement is set out below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Numbers and a report only go so far, so visit in person before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted no longer gives schools a single overall grade. Each area of the school's work is graded on a five-point scale, and safeguarding is judged separately.
- Inclusion
- Expected standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Expected standard
- Achievement
- Expected standard
- Attendance and behaviour
- Needs attention
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Strong standard
- Leadership and governance
- Expected standard
- Safeguarding
- Met
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 106 | 70 | 117 |
| Attainment 8 score | 35.0 | 43.8 | 42.7 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.71 -0.99 to -0.43 | -0.13 -0.48 to +0.22 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 22% | 47.1% | 41.9% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 42% | 67.1% | 59% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 5% | 18.6% | 19.7% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 2.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 |
Progress 8 is paused nationally for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 school years. Those pupils sat no key stage 2 tests during the Covid pandemic, so there is no starting point to measure progress from. A blank figure here is not missing school data.
Trends over time
How Cranbourne has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Hampshire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 35 | 37.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 43.8 | 37.8 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 42.7 | 37.1 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 9.4% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 9.1% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 9.5% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 671 |
| 2023/24 | 809 |
| 2024/25 | 987 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Cranbourne compares
Cranbourne ranked 44th of 67 secondary schools in Hampshire for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 48% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 9% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 42.7 | 9.5% | 28.3% | 1,088 | — |
| The Blue Coat School Basingstoke | 33.1 | 13% | 34.3% | 837 | 0.7 miles |
| Brighton Hill Community School | 44.5 | 7.3% | 17.9% | 1,284 | 0.8 miles |
| Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School | 59.3 | 4.7% | 10.3% | 894 | 1.0 miles |
| The Costello School | 47.3 | 8.8% | 16.6% | 1,160 | 1.0 miles |
| The Vyne Community School | 43 | 8.8% | 32.8% | 740 | 1.4 miles |
Results reflect each school's cohort as much as its teaching, and free school meals share is context, not a judgement. Small gaps between neighbouring schools are rarely meaningful on their own.
Inspection history
-
Graded inspection report6 January 2026
- 24 June 2021
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 28.27%
- English as an additional language
- 18.4%
- Overall absence
- 9.54%
- Persistent absence
- 24.02%
Location
Nearby schools
-
The Blue Coat School Basingstoke0.7 miles
Secondary · Basingstoke
-
Brighton Hill Community School0.8 miles
Secondary · Basingstoke
-
Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School1.0 miles
Secondary · Basingstoke
-
The Costello School1.0 miles
Secondary · Basingstoke
-
The Vyne Community School1.4 miles
Secondary · Basingstoke
Other schools in Basingstoke
Cranbourne ranks 5th of the 7 ranked secondary schools in Basingstoke.
- Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School Secondary
- Brighton Hill Community School Secondary
- Everest Community Academy Secondary
- The Blue Coat School Basingstoke Secondary
- The Costello School Secondary
- The Vyne Community School Secondary
- Castle Hill Infant School Primary
- Castle Hill Primary School Primary
- Chalk Ridge Primary School Primary
- Chiltern Primary School Primary
- Cliddesden Primary School Primary
- Fairfields Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What ages does Cranbourne teach?
- Cranbourne teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Basingstoke.
- Who is the headteacher of Cranbourne?
- The headteacher of Cranbourne is Miss Sarah Conlon, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- Has Cranbourne been inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Cranbourne, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How many pupils are at Cranbourne?
- Cranbourne has 1,088 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Cranbourne full?
- Cranbourne has capacity for 900 pupils and 1,088 on roll (121%), so it is at or above its published capacity. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is Cranbourne a faith school?
- No. Cranbourne has no designated religious character.
- Is Cranbourne a selective school?
- No. Cranbourne is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- What SEN provision does Cranbourne have?
- The schools register lists Cranbourne's special educational needs provision as: SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Cranbourne's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 35 in 2022/23 and 42.7 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Cranbourne compare with other schools in Hampshire?
- Cranbourne ranked 44th of 67 secondary schools in Hampshire for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 48% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 9% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Cranbourne's absence rate?
- Cranbourne's overall absence rate is 9.5% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Cranbourne's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Cranbourne's key stage results are shown in the results section on this page, with the last three years so you can see the trend rather than a single year.
School details come from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Inspection outcomes come from Ofsted, and exam results from the Department for Education's school performance service. This page was last updated on 30 June 2026.