Great Baddow High School
Duffield Road, Beehive Lane, Chelmsford, CM2 9RZ
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- QUANTUM MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST
- Headteacher
- Mr Paul Farmer
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- SEN provision
- HI - Hearing Impairment
- Constituency
- Chelmsford
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,520
- Pupils on roll
- 1,516
- URN
- 136904
- Local authority
- Essex
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01245265821
About this school
Great Baddow High School is a secondary academy in Chelmsford. It teaches children aged 11 to 18 and has 1,516 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
- Expected standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Expected standard
- Achievement
- Expected standard
- Attendance and behaviour
- Strong standard
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Strong standard
- Leadership and governance
- Expected standard
- Post-16 provision
- 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 | 248 | 250 | 249 |
| Attainment 8 score | 53.2 | 48.1 | 50.0 |
| Progress 8 score | +0.22 +0.04 to +0.40 | +0.03 -0.15 to +0.21 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 60% | 46.8% | 55.8% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 79% | 68.4% | 77.5% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 23% | 25.2% | 24.9% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 4.7 | 4.2 | 4.4 |
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 Great Baddow 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 | Essex average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 53.2 | 43.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 48.1 | 41.6 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 50 | 42.2 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 7% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 6.6% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 7.2% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1,535 |
| 2023/24 | 1,529 |
| 2024/25 | 1,528 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Great Baddow High School compares
Great Baddow High School ranked 14th of 78 secondary schools in Essex for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 76% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 23% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 50 | 7.2% | 18.1% | 1,516 | — |
| Moulsham High School | 58.3 | 4.6% | 13.9% | 1,662 | 0.8 miles |
| The Sandon School | 46.6 | 9% | 16.8% | 1,218 | 1.3 miles |
| King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford | 83.3 | 4.3% | 2.5% | 1,153 | 2.0 miles |
| Chelmsford County High School for Girls | 80.7 | 4.6% | 5.1% | 1,275 | 2.2 miles |
| Hylands School | 37.8 | 12.3% | 44.4% | 614 | 2.2 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
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 18.07%
- English as an additional language
- 5%
- Overall absence
- 7.23%
- Persistent absence
- 17.95%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Moulsham High School0.8 miles
Secondary · Chelmsford
-
The Sandon School1.3 miles
Secondary · Chelmsford
-
King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford2.0 miles
Secondary · Chelmsford
-
Chelmsford County High School for Girls2.2 miles
Secondary · Chelmsford
-
Hylands School2.2 miles
Secondary · Chelmsford
Other schools in Chelmsford
Great Baddow High School ranks 5th of the 11 ranked secondary schools in Chelmsford.
- Chelmer Valley High School Secondary
- Chelmsford County High School for Girls Secondary
- Hylands School Secondary
- King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford Secondary
- Moulsham High School Secondary
- St John Payne Catholic School, Chelmsford Secondary
- The Boswells School Secondary
- The Sandon School Secondary
- William de Ferrers School Secondary
- Tanglewood Nursery School Nursery
- Woodcroft Nursery School Nursery
- Baddow Hall Infant School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Great Baddow High School teach?
- Great Baddow High School teaches children aged 11 to 18. It is a secondary school in Chelmsford.
- Who is the headteacher of Great Baddow High School?
- The headteacher of Great Baddow High School is Mr Paul Farmer, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Great Baddow High School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Great Baddow 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 big is Great Baddow High School?
- Great Baddow High School has 1,516 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 18.
- Is Great Baddow High School full?
- Great Baddow High School has capacity for 1,520 pupils and 1,516 on roll (100%), 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 Great Baddow High School a faith school?
- No. Great Baddow High School has no designated religious character.
- Is Great Baddow High School a selective school?
- No. Great Baddow High School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Great Baddow High School?
- Great Baddow High School is part of QUANTUM MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- What SEN provision does Great Baddow High School have?
- The schools register lists Great Baddow High School's special educational needs provision as: HI - Hearing Impairment. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Great Baddow High School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 53.2 in 2022/23 and 50 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Great Baddow High School rank locally?
- Great Baddow High School ranked 14th of 78 secondary schools in Essex for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 76% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 23% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Great Baddow High School's absence rate?
- Great Baddow High School's overall absence rate is 7.2% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Great Baddow High School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Great Baddow 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 15 July 2026.