Oriel High School
Matthews Drive, Maidenbower, Crawley, RH10 7XW
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Community school
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Mr Philip Stack
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- SEN provision
- SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty
- Constituency
- Crawley
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,450
- Pupils on roll
- 1,441
- URN
- 134042
- Local authority
- West Sussex
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01293880350
About this school
Oriel High School is a community secondary school in Crawley. It teaches children aged 11 to 18 and has 1,441 pupils on roll.
Ofsted has inspected Oriel High School, and its latest judgement is set out below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Seeing a school for yourself shows what no page can, so arrange a visit 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
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Sixth form
- Good
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 244 | 235 | 240 |
| Attainment 8 score | 47.5 | 48.6 | 45.4 |
| Progress 8 score | +0.05 -0.14 to +0.23 | +0.10 -0.08 to +0.29 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 45% | 52.3% | 43.3% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 73% | 72.8% | 63.3% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 17% | 16.6% | 13.8% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 4.1 | 4.2 | 3.9 |
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 Oriel High 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 | West Sussex average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 47.5 | 37.1 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 48.6 | 37.2 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 45.4 | 36 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 7.6% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 8.2% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 8.8% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1,469 |
| 2023/24 | 1,497 |
| 2024/25 | 1,478 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Oriel High School compares
Oriel High School ranked 22nd of 38 secondary schools in West Sussex for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 59% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 12% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 45.4 | 8.8% | 14.9% | 1,441 | — |
| Hazelwick School | 50.2 | 6.6% | 18.7% | 1,913 | 1.4 miles |
| Thomas Bennett Community College | 33.1 | 11.6% | 37.8% | 1,261 | 1.5 miles |
| St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley | 45.5 | 6.5% | 16% | 1,174 | 2.0 miles |
| Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley | 41.7 | 12% | 32.4% | 1,340 | 2.2 miles |
| Ifield Community College | — | — | — | 1,214 | 2.4 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
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 14.94%
- English as an additional language
- 10.6%
- Overall absence
- 8.83%
- Persistent absence
- 26.41%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Hazelwick School1.4 miles
Secondary · Crawley
-
Thomas Bennett Community College1.5 miles
Secondary · Crawley
-
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley2.0 miles
Secondary · Crawley
-
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley2.2 miles
Secondary · Crawley
-
Ifield Community College2.4 miles
Secondary · Crawley
Other schools in Crawley
Oriel High School ranks 3rd of the 6 ranked secondary schools in Crawley.
- Hazelwick School Secondary
- Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley Secondary
- Ifield Community College Secondary
- St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley Secondary
- Thomas Bennett Community College Secondary
- Broadfield Primary Academy Primary
- Brook Infant School and Nursery Primary
- Crawley Down Village CofE School Primary
- Desmond Anderson Primary Academy Primary
- Fairway Infant School, Copthorne Primary
- Forge Wood Primary School Primary
- Gossops Green Primary Primary
Common questions
- What ages does Oriel High School teach?
- Oriel High School teaches children aged 11 to 18. It is a secondary school in Crawley.
- Who is the headteacher of Oriel High School?
- The headteacher of Oriel High School is Mr Philip Stack, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- Has Oriel High School been inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Oriel High 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 many pupils are at Oriel High School?
- Oriel High School has 1,441 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 18.
- Is Oriel High School full?
- Oriel High School has capacity for 1,450 pupils and 1,441 on roll (99%), 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 Oriel High School a faith school?
- No. Oriel High School has no designated religious character.
- Is Oriel High School a selective school?
- No. Oriel High School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- What SEN provision does Oriel High School have?
- The schools register lists Oriel High School's special educational needs provision as: SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Oriel High School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 47.5 in 2022/23 and 45.4 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Oriel High School compare with other schools in West Sussex?
- Oriel High School ranked 22nd of 38 secondary schools in West Sussex for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 59% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 12% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Oriel High School's absence rate?
- Oriel High School's overall absence rate is 8.8% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Oriel High School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Oriel High 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 1 July 2026.