Cove School
St John's Road, Cove, Farnborough, GU14 9RN
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Foundation school
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Dr Andrew King
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- SEN provision
- HI - Hearing Impairment
- Constituency
- Aldershot
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,050
- Pupils on roll
- 1,007
- URN
- 116446
- Local authority
- Hampshire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01252542397
About this school
Cove School is a foundation secondary school in Farnborough. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 1,007 pupils on roll.
You can read Ofsted's latest judgement for the school 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 did not give an overall grade. Between September 2024 and September 2025 inspections graded each area of a school's work without a single overall judgement, ahead of the move to report cards. How Ofsted report cards work
- Quality of education
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 198 | 193 | 186 |
| Attainment 8 score | 41.4 | 40.4 | 42.7 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.61 -0.81 to -0.40 | -0.74 -0.95 to -0.53 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 35% | 34.2% | 35.5% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 57% | 53.9% | 54.3% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 31% | 26.9% | 36% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.8 |
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 Cove School 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 | 41.4 | 37.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 40.4 | 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 | 9.7% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 9.3% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 8.8% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 961 |
| 2023/24 | 979 |
| 2024/25 | 1,010 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Cove School compares
Cove School ranked 45th 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 13% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 42.7 | 8.8% | 28.3% | 1,007 | — |
| Bohunt Farnborough | 38.7 | 12.5% | 35% | 599 | 1.2 miles |
| Kings International College | — | — | — | 802 | 2.0 miles |
| The Wavell School | 44 | 7.5% | 15.1% | 1,042 | 2.2 miles |
| Frogmore Community College | — | 8.9% | 20.7% | 630 | 2.7 miles |
| Tomlinscote School | 53.4 | 6.8% | 7.6% | 1,495 | 2.8 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.
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 28.32%
- English as an additional language
- 20.4%
- Overall absence
- 8.78%
- Persistent absence
- 22.68%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Bohunt Farnborough1.2 miles
Secondary · Farnborough
-
Kings International College2.0 miles
Secondary · Camberley
-
The Wavell School2.2 miles
Secondary · Farnborough
-
Frogmore Community College2.7 miles
Secondary · Yateley
-
Tomlinscote School2.8 miles
Secondary · Camberley
Other schools in Farnborough
- Bohunt Farnborough Secondary
- The Wavell School Secondary
- Cherrywood Community Primary School Primary
- Cove Infant School Primary
- Cove Junior School Primary
- Farnborough Grange Nursery & Infant Community School Primary
- Grange Community Junior School Primary
- Guillemont Junior School Primary
- Manor Infant School Primary
- Manor Junior School Primary
- North Farnborough Infant School Primary
- Parsonage Farm Nursery and Infant School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Cove School teach?
- Cove School teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Farnborough.
- Who is the headteacher of Cove School?
- The headteacher of Cove School is Dr Andrew King, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Cove School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Cove School, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How big is Cove School?
- Cove School has 1,007 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Cove School full?
- Cove School has capacity for 1,050 pupils and 1,007 on roll (96%), so it is close to full. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is Cove School a faith school?
- No. Cove School has no designated religious character.
- Is Cove School a selective school?
- No. Cove School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- What SEN provision does Cove School have?
- The schools register lists Cove School's special educational needs provision as: HI - Hearing Impairment. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Cove School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 41.4 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 Cove School rank locally?
- Cove School ranked 45th 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 13% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Cove School's absence rate?
- Cove School's overall absence rate is 8.8% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Cove School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Cove School'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.