Wensleydale School
Richmond Road, Leyburn, DL8 5HY
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Community school
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Mrs Julia Polley
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- SEN provision
- ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder
- Constituency
- Richmond and Northallerton
- Setting
- Larger rural: Further from a major town or city
- Capacity
- 440
- Pupils on roll
- 407
- URN
- 121679
- Local authority
- North Yorkshire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01969622244
About this school
Wensleydale School is a community secondary school in Leyburn. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 407 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 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
- Strong standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Expected standard
- Achievement
- Expected standard
- Attendance and behaviour
- Expected standard
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Expected 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 | 57 | 71 | 72 |
| Attainment 8 score | 41.7 | 41.4 | 41.5 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.48 -0.86 to -0.11 | -0.08 -0.42 to +0.26 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 32% | 25.4% | 34.7% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 60% | 50.7% | 56.9% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 14% | 18.3% | 11.1% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
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 Wensleydale 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 | North Yorkshire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 41.7 | 41.9 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 41.4 | 41.8 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 41.5 | 40.4 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 9.5% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 9.3% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 7.9% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 345 |
| 2023/24 | 363 |
| 2024/25 | 388 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Wensleydale School compares
Wensleydale School ranked 33rd of 41 secondary schools in North Yorkshire for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 44% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 17% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 41.5 | 7.9% | 18.3% | 407 | — |
| Risedale School | 29.8 | 11.5% | 33.7% | 467 | 6.3 miles |
| Richmond School & Sixth Form College | 45.6 | 8% | 17.2% | 1,315 | 7.6 miles |
| St Francis Xavier School - a Joint Catholic and Church of England Voluntary Academy | 54.6 | 4.2% | 12.4% | 611 | 7.9 miles |
| Bedale High School | 46.1 | 8.8% | 21.3% | 555 | 9.6 miles |
| Leyburn Primary School | — | 3.5% | 11.4% | 200 | 0.2 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 report12 May 2026
- 25 May 2022
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 18.3%
- English as an additional language
- 1.3%
- Overall absence
- 7.91%
- Persistent absence
- 24.26%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Risedale School6.3 miles
Secondary · Catterick Garrison
-
Richmond School & Sixth Form College7.6 miles
Secondary · Richmond
-
St Francis Xavier School - a Joint Catholic and Church of England Voluntary Academy7.9 miles
Secondary · Richmond
-
Bedale High School9.6 miles
Secondary · Bedale
-
Leyburn Primary School0.2 miles
Primary · Leyburn
Other schools in Leyburn
Common questions
- What year groups does Wensleydale School teach?
- Wensleydale School teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Leyburn.
- Who is the headteacher of Wensleydale School?
- The headteacher of Wensleydale School is Mrs Julia Polley, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Wensleydale School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Wensleydale 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 Wensleydale School?
- Wensleydale School has 407 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Wensleydale School full?
- Wensleydale School has capacity for 440 pupils and 407 on roll (93%), so it has space against 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 Wensleydale School a faith school?
- No. Wensleydale School has no designated religious character.
- Is Wensleydale School a selective school?
- No. Wensleydale School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- What SEN provision does Wensleydale School have?
- The schools register lists Wensleydale School's special educational needs provision as: ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Wensleydale School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 41.7 in 2022/23 and 41.5 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Wensleydale School rank locally?
- Wensleydale School ranked 33rd of 41 secondary schools in North Yorkshire for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 44% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 17% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Wensleydale School's absence rate?
- Wensleydale School's overall absence rate is 7.9% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Wensleydale School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Wensleydale 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 17 July 2026.