Rhyddings
Haworth Street, Oswaldtwistle, Accrington, BB5 3EA
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- LET EDUCATION TRUST
- Headteacher
- Mr Dave Murphy
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Constituency
- Hyndburn
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 771
- Pupils on roll
- 610
- URN
- 148921
- Local authority
- Lancashire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01254231051
About this school
Rhyddings is a secondary academy in Accrington. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 610 pupils on roll.
Ofsted has inspected Rhyddings, 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
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Requires improvement
- Personal development
- Requires improvement
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 104 | 103 | 123 |
| Attainment 8 score | 36.1 | 33.5 | 36.5 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.79 -1.08 to -0.49 | -0.87 -1.16 to -0.58 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 20% | 23.3% | 22% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 44% | 39.8% | 50.4% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 5% | 3.9% | 8.9% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 2.9 | 2.7 | 2.9 |
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 Rhyddings has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Lancashire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 36.1 | 38.1 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 33.5 | 37.6 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 36.5 | 37 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 10.9% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 11.9% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 11.7% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 612 |
| 2023/24 | 642 |
| 2024/25 | 683 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Rhyddings compares
Rhyddings ranked 74th of 81 secondary schools in Lancashire for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 30% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 4% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 36.5 | 11.7% | 47.3% | 610 | — |
| Mount Carmel Roman Catholic High School, Hyndburn | 42.7 | 9.4% | 33% | 801 | 0.5 miles |
| Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School | 50.7 | 6.2% | 14.6% | 1,280 | 1.2 miles |
| Accrington Academy | 39.4 | 10.4% | 41.2% | 953 | 1.3 miles |
| The Hollins | 40.7 | 7.8% | 33.8% | 794 | 1.6 miles |
| The Hyndburn Academy | 37.4 | 7.6% | 43.9% | 641 | 2.1 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)
- 47.29%
- English as an additional language
- 28.1%
- Overall absence
- 11.73%
- Persistent absence
- 37.08%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Mount Carmel Roman Catholic High School, Hyndburn0.5 miles
Secondary · Accrington
-
Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School1.2 miles
Secondary · Accrington
-
Accrington Academy1.3 miles
Secondary · Accrington
-
The Hollins1.6 miles
Secondary · Accrington
-
The Hyndburn Academy2.1 miles
Secondary · Blackburn
Other schools in Accrington
Rhyddings ranks 5th of the 5 ranked secondary schools in Accrington.
- Accrington Academy Secondary
- Accrington St Christopher's Church of England High School Secondary
- Mount Carmel Roman Catholic High School, Hyndburn Secondary
- The Hollins Secondary
- Fairfield Nursery School Nursery
- Lee Royd Nursery School Nursery
- Accrington Benjamin Hargreaves Church of England Primary School Primary
- Accrington Huncoat Primary School Primary
- Accrington Hyndburn Park Primary School Primary
- Accrington Peel Park Primary School Primary
- Accrington Spring Hill Community Primary School Primary
- Accrington St John with St Augustine Church of England Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What ages does Rhyddings teach?
- Rhyddings teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Accrington.
- Who is the headteacher of Rhyddings?
- The headteacher of Rhyddings is Mr Dave Murphy, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- Has Rhyddings been inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Rhyddings, 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 Rhyddings?
- Rhyddings has 610 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Rhyddings full?
- Rhyddings has capacity for 771 pupils and 610 on roll (79%), 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 Rhyddings a faith school?
- No. Rhyddings has no designated religious character.
- Is Rhyddings a selective school?
- No. Rhyddings is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Is Rhyddings part of an academy trust?
- Rhyddings is part of LET EDUCATION TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Rhyddings's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 36.1 in 2022/23 and 36.5 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Rhyddings compare with other schools in Lancashire?
- Rhyddings ranked 74th of 81 secondary schools in Lancashire for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 30% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 4% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Rhyddings's absence rate?
- Rhyddings's overall absence rate is 11.7% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Rhyddings's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Rhyddings'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.