Stowmarket High School
Onehouse Road, Stowmarket, IP14 1QR
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- KINGFISHER SCHOOLS TRUST
- Headteacher
- Ms Lucie Hernandez
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Sponsor
- Kingfisher Schools Trust Ltd
- Constituency
- Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,200
- Pupils on roll
- 901
- URN
- 145055
- Local authority
- Suffolk
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01449613541
About this school
Stowmarket High School is a secondary academy in Stowmarket. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 901 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
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Outstanding
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 148 | 164 | 178 |
| Attainment 8 score | 43.0 | 45.4 | 40.5 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.10 -0.33 to +0.13 | -0.03 -0.25 to +0.19 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 39% | 47% | 35.4% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 64% | 70.1% | 58.4% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 28% | 18.9% | 34.8% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.6 | 3.9 | 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 Stowmarket 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 | Suffolk average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 43 | 37.4 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 45.4 | 37.3 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 40.5 | 36 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 9.6% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 8.7% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 7.6% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 872 |
| 2023/24 | 901 |
| 2024/25 | 896 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Stowmarket High School compares
Stowmarket High School ranked 30th of 43 secondary schools in Suffolk for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 40% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 19% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 40.5 | 7.6% | 21.8% | 901 | — |
| Stowupland High School | 41.1 | 10.3% | 27.4% | 846 | 1.9 miles |
| Claydon High School | 45 | 7.6% | 20.5% | 765 | 8.2 miles |
| Debenham High School | 55.7 | 6.7% | 13.5% | 714 | 8.4 miles |
| Thurston Community College | 46.9 | 7.8% | 18% | 1,512 | 8.4 miles |
| Ixworth High School | 44 | 9.3% | 22.9% | 512 | 9.6 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)
- 21.76%
- English as an additional language
- 5.9%
- Overall absence
- 7.62%
- Persistent absence
- 21.41%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Stowupland High School1.9 miles
Secondary · Stowmarket
-
Claydon High School8.2 miles
Secondary · Ipswich
-
Debenham High School8.4 miles
Secondary · Stowmarket
-
Thurston Community College8.4 miles
Secondary · Bury St Edmunds
-
Ixworth High School9.6 miles
Secondary · Ixworth
Other schools in Stowmarket
- Debenham High School Secondary
- Stowupland High School Secondary
- Abbot's Hall Community Primary School Primary
- Bacton Primary School Primary
- Cedars Park Community Primary School Primary
- Chilton Community Primary School Primary
- Combs Ford Primary School Primary
- Crawford's Church of England Primary School Primary
- Freeman Community Primary School Primary
- Grace Cook Primary School Primary
- Great Finborough Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Primary
- Helmingham Primary School and Nursery Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Stowmarket High School teach?
- Stowmarket High School teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Stowmarket.
- Who is the headteacher of Stowmarket High School?
- The headteacher of Stowmarket High School is Ms Lucie Hernandez, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Stowmarket High School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Stowmarket 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 Stowmarket High School?
- Stowmarket High School has 901 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Stowmarket High School full?
- Stowmarket High School has capacity for 1,200 pupils and 901 on roll (75%), 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 Stowmarket High School a faith school?
- No. Stowmarket High School has no designated religious character.
- Is Stowmarket High School a selective school?
- No. Stowmarket High School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Stowmarket High School?
- Stowmarket High School is part of KINGFISHER SCHOOLS TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Stowmarket High School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 43 in 2022/23 and 40.5 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Stowmarket High School rank locally?
- Stowmarket High School ranked 30th of 43 secondary schools in Suffolk for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 40% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 19% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Stowmarket High School's absence rate?
- Stowmarket High School's overall absence rate is 7.6% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Stowmarket High School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Stowmarket 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 10 July 2026.