Ashlyns School
Foundation school · sixth form · 1,561 pupils
94% stayed in education · Attainment 8 57.9
Community special school
The Valley School
- Pupils on roll
- 193of 165 places
- Free school meals
- 40.9%
- Year 11 cohort 2025
- 35
- Ofsted
- School remains Good (Concerns) - S5 Next, 5 November 2024Read the Ofsted report
What the data says
Of the 33 pupils who finished Year 11 at The Valley School in 2023, none moved to a sixth form college, 82% to a further education college and none started an apprenticeship.
Almost nobody goes straight into an apprenticeship or a job: none took an apprenticeship and none went into work, against 3% and 3% across England.
The Valley School is a special school: its GCSE figures (Attainment 8 of 0.2, 0% with grade 5 or above in English and maths) are published by DfE for completeness and are not comparable with mainstream schools.
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 Hertfordshire and England.
School sixth formSixth form collegeFurther education collegeOther educationApprenticeshipEmploymentNo sustained destination
| Measure | The Valley School | Hertfordshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils in the cohort | 33 | 14,400 | 607,348 |
| Any sustained destination | 91% | 95% | 92% |
| Stayed in education | 91% | 92% | 86% |
| — school sixth form | 0% | 58% | 34% |
| — sixth form college | 0% | 2% | 13% |
| — further education college | 82% | 31% | 37% |
| — other education | 9% | 1% | 2% |
| Apprenticeship | 0% | 2% | 3% |
| Employment | 0% | 2% | 3% |
| No sustained destination | 3% | 3% | 6% |
| Destination unknown | 6% | 2% | 3% |
GCSE results 2025
| Measure | The Valley School | Hertfordshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attainment 8 (average points per pupil) | 0.2 | 50.6 | 46.1 |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 0% | 53% | 45% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 0% | 72% | 65% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate subjects | 0% | 47% | 41% |
| EBacc average point score | 0.02 | 4.56 | 4.09 |
| Disadvantaged pupils in the cohort | 57% | 18% | 28% |
| Attainment 8 — disadvantaged pupils | 0.1 | 34.2 | 34.9 |
| Attainment 8 — other pupils | 0.4 | 54.1 | 50.4 |
| Pupils with high prior attainment (Key Stage 2) | — | — | — |
| English as an additional language | 3% | 16% | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | 2 | 6% | 88% | — | 22% | — |
Where The Valley School is
Other secondary schools in Hertfordshire 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 Hertfordshire’s allocation statistics.
Other secondary schools in Hertfordshire
Barclay Academy
Academy sponsor led · sixth form · 1,044 pupils
91% stayed in education · Attainment 8 49.5
Barnwell School
Foundation school · sixth form · 1,270 pupils
88% stayed in education · Attainment 8 41.5
Beaumont School
Academy converter · sixth form · 1,722 pupils
98% stayed in education · Attainment 8 62.6
Birchwood High School
Academy converter · sixth form · 1,417 pupils
85% stayed in education · Attainment 8 46.1
Bishop's Hatfield Girls' School
Academy converter · sixth form · 942 pupils
97% stayed in education · Attainment 8 51.9
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.