The Cooper School
Churchill Road, Bicester, OX26 4RS
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- ACER TRUST
- Headteacher
- Mrs Charlotte Broom
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Sponsor
- Acer Trust
- Constituency
- Bicester and Woodstock
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,333
- Pupils on roll
- 1,118
- URN
- 141069
- Local authority
- Oxfordshire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01869242121
About this school
The Cooper School is a secondary academy in Bicester. It teaches children aged 11 to 18 and has 1,118 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
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Requires improvement
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- 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 | 217 | 227 | 220 |
| Attainment 8 score | 43.9 | 44.6 | 41.7 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.20 -0.39 to 0.00 | -0.21 -0.40 to -0.02 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 39% | 37.4% | 39.5% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 61% | 61.7% | 60% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 43% | 41.4% | 18.6% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.9 | 4.0 | 3.6 |
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 The Cooper 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 | Oxfordshire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 43.9 | 38.1 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 44.6 | 37.2 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 41.7 | 37.5 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 9.1% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 8.4% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 8.8% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1,296 |
| 2023/24 | 1,272 |
| 2024/25 | 1,228 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How The Cooper School compares
The Cooper School ranked 31st of 41 secondary schools in Oxfordshire 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 13% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 41.7 | 8.8% | 13.8% | 1,118 | — |
| The Bicester School | 47.9 | 8.7% | 20% | 1,176 | 0.8 miles |
| Whitelands Academy | 46.4 | 9.9% | 19.3% | 565 | 1.6 miles |
| Gosford Hill School | 45.3 | 10.7% | 22.2% | 825 | 8.5 miles |
| Royal Latin School | 73.5 | 4.3% | 5.4% | 1,326 | 9.0 miles |
| Buckingham School | 38.6 | 11.8% | 21.8% | 1,110 | 9.1 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)
- 13.76%
- English as an additional language
- 16%
- Overall absence
- 8.79%
- Persistent absence
- 23%
Location
Nearby schools
-
The Bicester School0.8 miles
Secondary · Bicester
-
Whitelands Academy1.6 miles
Secondary · Bicester
-
Gosford Hill School8.5 miles
Secondary · Kidlington
-
Royal Latin School9.0 miles
Secondary · Buckingham
-
Buckingham School9.1 miles
Secondary · Buckingham
Other schools in Bicester
- The Bicester School Secondary
- Whitelands Academy Secondary
- Brookside Primary School Primary
- Bure Park Primary School Primary
- Chesterton Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School Primary
- Dr Radcliffe's Church of England Primary School Primary
- Five Acres Primary School Primary
- Fringford Church of England Primary School Primary
- Fritwell Church of England Primary School Primary
- Gagle Brook Primary School Primary
- Glory Farm Primary School Primary
- King's Meadow Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does The Cooper School teach?
- The Cooper School teaches children aged 11 to 18. It is a secondary school in Bicester.
- Who is the headteacher of The Cooper School?
- The headteacher of The Cooper School is Mrs Charlotte Broom, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was The Cooper School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected The Cooper 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 The Cooper School?
- The Cooper School has 1,118 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 18.
- Is The Cooper School full?
- The Cooper School has capacity for 1,333 pupils and 1,118 on roll (84%), 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 The Cooper School a faith school?
- No. The Cooper School has no designated religious character.
- Is The Cooper School a selective school?
- No. The Cooper School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs The Cooper School?
- The Cooper School is part of ACER TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have The Cooper School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 43.9 in 2022/23 and 41.7 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does The Cooper School rank locally?
- The Cooper School ranked 31st of 41 secondary schools in Oxfordshire 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 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 The Cooper School's absence rate?
- The Cooper School's overall absence rate is 8.8% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are The Cooper School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, The Cooper 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.