Hitchin Girls' School
Highbury Road, Hitchin, SG4 9RS
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Gender
- Girls
- Trust
- HITCHIN GIRLS' SCHOOL
- Headteacher
- Mr James Crowther
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Constituency
- Hitchin
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,400
- Pupils on roll
- 1,357
- URN
- 137288
- Local authority
- Hertfordshire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01462621300
About this school
Hitchin Girls' School is a girls' secondary academy in Hitchin. It teaches children aged 11 to 18 and has 1,357 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. 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
- Outstanding
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Outstanding
- Personal development
- Outstanding
- Leadership and management
- Outstanding
- Sixth form
- Outstanding
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 202 | 204 | 208 |
| Attainment 8 score | 58.8 | 57.8 | 57.8 |
| Progress 8 score | +0.53 +0.33 to +0.73 | +0.62 +0.42 to +0.82 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 66% | 65.7% | 68.8% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 84% | 84.3% | 86.1% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 36% | 27.5% | 34.1% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.1 |
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 Hitchin Girls' 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 | Hertfordshire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 58.8 | 44.6 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 57.8 | 44.2 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 57.8 | 44.1 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 8.7% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 7.7% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 7.2% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1,368 |
| 2023/24 | 1,355 |
| 2024/25 | 1,356 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Hitchin Girls' School compares
Hitchin Girls' School ranked 21st of 78 secondary schools in Hertfordshire for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 91% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 24% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 57.8 | 7.2% | 8.4% | 1,357 | — |
| Hitchin Boys' School | 57.1 | 4.4% | 7.9% | 1,364 | 0.4 miles |
| The Priory School | 48.5 | 8.7% | 24.2% | 1,221 | 1.2 miles |
| The Highfield School | 41.7 | 10% | 27.8% | 937 | 1.9 miles |
| Fearnhill School | 38.9 | 10.9% | 39.3% | 597 | 2.2 miles |
| The Saint John Henry Newman Catholic School | 57.9 | 5.5% | 10.3% | 1,620 | 3.1 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)
- 8.38%
- English as an additional language
- 14.6%
- Overall absence
- 7.18%
- Persistent absence
- 16.3%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Hitchin Boys' School0.4 miles
Secondary · Hitchin
-
The Priory School1.2 miles
Secondary · Hitchin
-
The Highfield School1.9 miles
Secondary · Letchworth Garden City
-
Fearnhill School2.2 miles
Secondary · Letchworth
-
The Saint John Henry Newman Catholic School3.1 miles
Secondary · Stevenage
Other schools in Hitchin
- Hitchin Boys' School Secondary
- The Priory School Secondary
- York Road Nursery School Nursery
- Breachwood Green Junior Mixed and Infant School Primary
- Codicote Church of England Primary School Primary
- Graveley Primary School Primary
- Highbury Infant School and Nursery Primary
- Highover Junior Mixed and Infant School Primary
- Ickleford Primary School Primary
- Kimpton Primary School Primary
- Mary Exton Primary School Primary
- Offley Endowed Primary School and Nursery Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Hitchin Girls' School teach?
- Hitchin Girls' School teaches children aged 11 to 18. It is a secondary school in Hitchin.
- Who is the headteacher of Hitchin Girls' School?
- The headteacher of Hitchin Girls' School is Mr James Crowther, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Hitchin Girls' School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Hitchin Girls' 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 Hitchin Girls' School?
- Hitchin Girls' School has 1,357 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 18.
- Is Hitchin Girls' School full?
- Hitchin Girls' School has capacity for 1,400 pupils and 1,357 on roll (97%), 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 Hitchin Girls' School a faith school?
- No. Hitchin Girls' School has no designated religious character.
- Is Hitchin Girls' School a selective school?
- No. Hitchin Girls' School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Hitchin Girls' School?
- Hitchin Girls' School is part of HITCHIN GIRLS' SCHOOL. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Hitchin Girls' School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 58.8 in 2022/23 and 57.8 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Hitchin Girls' School rank locally?
- Hitchin Girls' School ranked 21st of 78 secondary schools in Hertfordshire for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 91% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 24% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Hitchin Girls' School's absence rate?
- Hitchin Girls' School's overall absence rate is 7.2% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Hitchin Girls' School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Hitchin Girls' 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.