Blatchington Mill School
Community school · 1,622 pupils
91% stayed in education · Attainment 8 51.0
Community school
Varndean School
- Pupils on roll
- 1,487of 1,500 places
- Free school meals
- 23.0%
- Year 11 cohort 2025
- 299
- Ofsted
- Good, 5 October 2022Read the Ofsted report
What the data says
Varndean School has no sixth form. Of the 293 pupils who finished Year 11 there in 2023, 75% moved to a sixth form college, 13% to a further education college and 1% started an apprenticeship.
Sixth form colleges are the main next step: 75% of leavers went to one, roughly three times the England rate of 13%.
Sociology is unusually popular at GCSE: 30% of the year group took it, against 4% of pupils across England.
GCSE results in 2025 were above the national picture: Attainment 8 of 48.8 against 46.1 across England and 46.2 in Brighton and Hove, with 56% of pupils getting grade 5 or above in both English and maths (England 45%).
Where pupils went after Year 11
Destinations of the 2023 Year 11 leavers, measured the following year: the share in a sustained place for at least two terms. Compared with all state-funded schools in Brighton and Hove and England.
School sixth formSixth form collegeFurther education collegeOther educationApprenticeshipEmploymentNo sustained destination
| Measure | Varndean School | Brighton and Hove | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils in the cohort | 293 | 2,405 | 607,348 |
| Any sustained destination | 96% | 93% | 92% |
| Stayed in education | 94% | 90% | 86% |
| — school sixth form | 3% | 13% | 34% |
| — sixth form college | 75% | 55% | 13% |
| — further education college | 13% | 19% | 37% |
| — other education | 2% | 3% | 2% |
| Apprenticeship | 1% | 2% | 3% |
| Employment | 1% | 2% | 3% |
| No sustained destination | 3% | 5% | 6% |
| Destination unknown | 1% | 2% | 3% |
GCSE results 2025
| Measure | Varndean School | Brighton and Hove | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attainment 8 (average points per pupil) | 48.8 | 46.2 | 46.1 |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 56% | 48% | 45% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 73% | 67% | 65% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate subjects | 68% | 53% | 41% |
| EBacc average point score | 4.54 | 4.24 | 4.09 |
| Disadvantaged pupils in the cohort | 25% | 27% | 28% |
| Attainment 8 — disadvantaged pupils | 33.8 | 32.5 | 34.9 |
| Attainment 8 — other pupils | 53.8 | 51.2 | 50.4 |
| Pupils with high prior attainment (Key Stage 2) | — | — | — |
| English as an additional language | 12% | 15% | 19% |
Progress 8 is not available for 2025 and 2026: these cohorts had no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021, so there is no baseline. Attainment 8 shows results without taking pupils’ starting points into account.
Subjects taken at GCSE
Entries in 2025 as a share of the Year 11 cohort, and the share of entries graded 7–9 and 4–9, compared with all entries in England.
| Subject | Entries | Share of cohort | England | Grades 7–9 | England | Grades 4–9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language | 297 | 99% | 89% | 21% | 20% | 73% |
| Mathematics | 297 | 99% | 88% | 34% | 22% | 78% |
| English Literature | 285 | 95% | 86% | 20% | 21% | 77% |
| Combined Science | 191 | 64% | 65% | 7% | 9% | 64% |
| History | 138 | 46% | 41% | 23% | 26% | 60% |
| Geography | 127 | 42% | 41% | 34% | 25% | 75% |
| Spanish | 118 | 39% | 19% | 21% | 27% | 65% |
| Physics | 96 | 32% | 23% | 41% | 46% | 97% |
| Chemistry | 95 | 32% | 23% | 46% | 47% | 98% |
| Biology | 94 | 31% | 23% | 49% | 45% | 100% |
| Sociology | 90 | 30% | 4% | 23% | 21% | 71% |
| French | 88 | 29% | 18% | 40% | 29% | 67% |
| Art and Design | 88 | 29% | 7% | 20% | 24% | 86% |
| Drama | 59 | 20% | 7% | 19% | 27% | 75% |
| Design and Technology | 51 | 17% | 11% | 33% | 23% | 76% |
| Food Preparation and Nutrition | 33 | 11% | 8% | 18% | 21% | 52% |
| Dance | 31 | 10% | 1% | 42% | 27% | 87% |
| Statistics | 29 | 10% | 5% | 79% | 20% | 100% |
| Film Studies | 23 | 8% | 1% | 22% | 20% | 74% |
| Media Studies | 19 | 6% | 4% | 37% | 20% | 74% |
| Computer Science | 16 | 5% | 13% | 31% | 30% | 81% |
| Music | 14 | 5% | 5% | 79% | 33% | 100% |
| German | 12 | 4% | 5% | 75% | 33% | 100% |
| Physical Education | 7 | 2% | 11% | 43% | 24% | 100% |
| Chinese | 5 | 2% | 1% | — | 75% | — |
| Astronomy | 4 | 1% | 0% | — | 29% | — |
| Persian | 2 | 1% | 0% | — | 77% | — |
| Modern Greek | 2 | 1% | 0% | — | 33% | — |
| Portuguese | 1 | 0% | 0% | — | 50% | — |
| Urdu | 1 | 0% | 1% | — | 42% | — |
| Arabic | 1 | 0% | 1% | — | 47% | — |
| Italian | 1 | 0% | 0% | — | 53% | — |
Technical awards and other Key Stage 4 qualifications
| Subject | Entries | Share of cohort | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Business Management | 27 | — | — |
| Personal Health | 24 | — | — |
| Health Studies | 19 | — | — |
| Computer Appreciation / Introduction | 18 | — | — |
| Additional Mathematics FSMQ | 14 | — | — |
| Speech and Drama | 10 | — | — |
Where Varndean School is
Other secondary schools in Brighton and Hove are shown for comparison; darker blue means more Year 11 leavers stayed in education. The last distance at which this school offered places is not yet on file — it comes from Brighton and Hove’s allocation statistics.
Other secondary schools in Brighton and Hove
Brighton Aldridge Community Academy
Academy sponsor led · sixth form · 808 pupils
75% stayed in education · Attainment 8 36.2
Cardinal Newman Catholic School
Voluntary aided school · sixth form · 2,657 pupils
92% stayed in education · Attainment 8 50.4
Dorothy Stringer School
Community school · 1,626 pupils
93% stayed in education · Attainment 8 53.3
Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre
Community school · sixth form · 941 pupils
91% stayed in education · Attainment 8 41.1
King's School
Free schools · sixth form · 925 pupils
93% stayed in education · Attainment 8 53.7
Sources: Department for Education school and college performance tables 2024/2025 (Key Stage 4 and 16–18 results, subject entries, destination measures for 2023 leavers); Get Information About Schools register as at 19 September 2026; Ofsted management information as at 31 August 2026. Small numbers are suppressed by DfE and shown as “—”. How to read these figures.