Saffron Walden County High School A GSG School
- Saffron Walden County High School
Audley End Road
Saffron Walden
Essex
CB11 4UH - Head: Polly Lankester
- T 01799 513030
- F 01799 513031
- E info@swchs.net
- W www.swchs.net
- A state school for boys and girls aged from 11 to 18.
- Read about the best schools in Essex
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Essex
- Pupils: 2,137; sixth formers: 629
- Religion: Non-denominational
- Open days: September and October
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Outstanding 1
- 16-19 study programmes Outstanding 1
- Outcomes for children and learners Outstanding 1
- Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding 1
- Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding 1
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding 1
- 1 Full inspection 26th March 2024
- Previous Ofsted grade: Outstanding on 16th May 2012
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
This really is the epicentre of the arts for the local area. School incorporates a professional concert and theatrical venue (Saffron Hall) as well as the town’s arts cinema (Saffron Screen), a clever move which has brought superb facilities to the site for the use and inspiration of pupils during the day and the local community at other times. ‘We give the independent schools a run for their money,’ beams head…
What the school says...
Converted to an academy 2011.
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What The Good Schools Guide says
Headteacher
Since 2020, Polly Lankester. Studied history at Cambridge after a gap year in China, during which she fell in love with teaching. Took her PGCE and landed her first job as a teacher - in the school she now leads. ‘I knew the minute I walked through the door that this was a special place and I would be lucky to work here and, if I did, that it would be hard to leave,’ she predicted. Worked her way up through the ranks, spending several years as associate head to the former executive headteacher (now the trust’s CEO) before taking on sole headship. A familiar face, then, and much in evidence day-to-day.
Parents appreciate her ‘warm and caring nature’ and enjoy chatting to her at school events. But her favourite hours...
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
The school is well staffed to cope with students who have special educational needs. The team of Learning Support Assistants work closely with the SENCO to ensure that all individual education plans are well focussed on the children's special educational needs. 09-09
Interpreting catchment maps
The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.
Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.
For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained
Further reading
If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.
Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.
Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.
*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.
The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.
Children get into the school from here:
regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year
Who came from where
| School | Year | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Stephen Perse Junior School Dame Bradbury's | 2024 | 5 |
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