Sacred Heart Catholic Academy
Liverpool Road, Crosby, Liverpool, L23 5TF
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- Roman Catholic
- Trust
- POPE FRANCIS CATHOLIC MULTI ACADEMY TRUST
- Headteacher
- Mr Mark O'Hagan
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Liverpool
- Sponsor
- Pope Francis Multi Academy Trust
- Constituency
- Bootle
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,354
- Pupils on roll
- 613
- URN
- 149047
- Local authority
- Sefton
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01519312971
About this school
Sacred Heart Catholic Academy is a Roman Catholic secondary academy in Liverpool. It teaches children aged 11 to 18 and has 613 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
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Requires improvement
- Personal development
- Requires improvement
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Sixth form
- 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 | 192 | 177 | 170 |
| Attainment 8 score | 42.1 | 38.4 | 42.4 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.57 -0.77 to -0.37 | -0.75 -0.96 to -0.53 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 34% | 32.2% | 38.2% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 63% | 58.2% | 58.2% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 9% | 14.1% | 11.8% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.4 | 3.3 | 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 Sacred Heart Catholic Academy has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Sefton average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 42.1 | 37.4 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 38.4 | 36.9 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 42.4 | 35.4 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 13.2% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 13.1% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 13.2% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 981 |
| 2023/24 | 821 |
| 2024/25 | 653 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Sacred Heart Catholic Academy compares
Sacred Heart Catholic Academy ranked 10th of 17 secondary schools in Sefton for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 47% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 3% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 42.4 | 13.2% | 33.1% | 613 | — |
| Chesterfield High School | 48.4 | 8.2% | 26.1% | 1,692 | 0.8 miles |
| St Michaels Church of England Academy | — | 13.5% | — | 547 | 0.9 miles |
| Holy Family Catholic High School | 44.8 | 9.2% | 26.7% | 1,012 | 1.1 miles |
| Litherland High School | 41.7 | 11.8% | 48.7% | 761 | 1.5 miles |
| The Salesian Academy of St John Bosco | 32.2 | 12.4% | 54.3% | 575 | 2.0 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)
- 33.12%
- English as an additional language
- 8.1%
- Overall absence
- 13.19%
- Persistent absence
- 35.8%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Chesterfield High School0.8 miles
Secondary · Liverpool
-
St Michaels Church of England Academy0.9 miles
Secondary · Crosby
-
Holy Family Catholic High School1.1 miles
Secondary · Liverpool
-
Litherland High School1.5 miles
Secondary · Liverpool
-
The Salesian Academy of St John Bosco2.0 miles
Secondary · Bootle
Other schools in Liverpool
Sacred Heart Catholic Academy ranks 20th of the 40 ranked secondary schools in Liverpool.
- Alsop High School Secondary
- Archbishop Beck Catholic College Secondary
- Archbishop Blanch CofE High School Secondary
- Bellerive FCJ Catholic College Secondary
- Broughton Hall Catholic High School Secondary
- Calderstones School Secondary
- Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School Secondary
- Chesterfield High School Secondary
- Childwall Sports & Science Academy Secondary
- Deyes High School Secondary
- Dixons Broadgreen Academy Secondary
- Dixons Croxteth Academy Secondary
Common questions
- What year groups does Sacred Heart Catholic Academy teach?
- Sacred Heart Catholic Academy teaches children aged 11 to 18. It is a secondary school in Liverpool.
- Who is the headteacher of Sacred Heart Catholic Academy?
- The headteacher of Sacred Heart Catholic Academy is Mr Mark O'Hagan, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Sacred Heart Catholic Academy last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Sacred Heart Catholic Academy, 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 Sacred Heart Catholic Academy?
- Sacred Heart Catholic Academy has 613 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 18.
- Is Sacred Heart Catholic Academy full?
- Sacred Heart Catholic Academy has capacity for 1,354 pupils and 613 on roll (45%), 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 Sacred Heart Catholic Academy a faith school?
- Yes. Sacred Heart Catholic Academy is designated Roman Catholic, in the Archdiocese of Liverpool.
- Is Sacred Heart Catholic Academy a selective school?
- No. Sacred Heart Catholic Academy is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Sacred Heart Catholic Academy?
- Sacred Heart Catholic Academy is part of POPE FRANCIS CATHOLIC MULTI ACADEMY TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Sacred Heart Catholic Academy's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 42.1 in 2022/23 and 42.4 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Sacred Heart Catholic Academy rank locally?
- Sacred Heart Catholic Academy ranked 10th of 17 secondary schools in Sefton for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 47% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 3% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Sacred Heart Catholic Academy's absence rate?
- Sacred Heart Catholic Academy's overall absence rate is 13.2% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Sacred Heart Catholic Academy's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Sacred Heart Catholic Academy'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.