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Secondary · WA10 · St Helens

Cowley International College

Hard Lane, St Helens, WA10 6PN

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OfstedNo overall grade

At a glance

Key published figures for this school.

OfstedNo overall grade
Attendance (2024/25)87.8%
Attainment (2024/25)Attainment 8: 39.3
Roll vs capacityClose to published capacity
Pupils1514

Ofsted inspection

Latest Ofsted report card

Report card grades

Safeguarding
Met
Inclusion
Needs attention
Curriculum and teaching
Needs attention
Achievement
Needs attention
Attendance and behaviour
Needs attention
Personal development and wellbeing
Expected standard
Post-16 provision
Needs attention
Leadership and governance
Expected standard

Ofsted grades each area on its own, from urgent improvement up to exceptional. Expected standard means the school is doing everything it should. These grades cannot be compared with the old overall grades.

Report published 30 Apr 2026.

Inspection history

  • Latest ungradedSchool remains Good
  • Previous gradedGood

This page shows previous graded and latest ungraded outcomes when Ofsted publishes them in the national file. Full history stays on the Ofsted report.

View on Ofsted

School figures

Coloured bars compare this school with the average for other schools in WA10. Where we have them, council (St. Helens) and England figures appear under FSM, SEN and attendance. FSM, SEN and EAL are context, not quality scores. For attendance, higher is usually better.

Pupils on roll
1514
Free school meals
37.5%
7.4% above district average (30.1%)

Also: St. Helens 29.1% · England 25.8%

SEN
20.5%
3.6% below district average (24.1%)

Also: St. Helens 22.2% · England 16.5%

EAL
7.1%
2.5% below district average (9.6%)
Attendance
87.8% Autumn and spring 2024/25
6.6% below district average (94.4%)

Also: St. Helens 91.1% · England 91.9%

Each metric uses its own colour so you can tell the rows apart. The lighter bar is the WA10 average; the darker bar is this school.

Compared with England

Persistent absence is 2024/25. Headline GCSE measures are 2024/25. Progress 8 is from 2023/24, the latest year published for this school. There is no Progress 8 for 2024/25 or 2025/26, because those pupils did not sit Key Stage 2 tests during the pandemic. England is the state-funded average from the same tables. Progress 8 of 0 is typical.

Persistent absence2024/25

28.1%

6.2% above England (21.9%)

Progress 82023/24

-0.69

0.69 below England (0.00)

Attainment 82024/25

39.3

6.8 below England (46.1)

Grade 5+ English & maths2024/25

30.4%

15% below England (45.4%)

Grade 4+ English & maths2024/25

48.3%

16.5% below England (64.8%)

Entered for EBacc2024/25

53.3%

12.8% above England (40.5%)

EBacc average point score2024/25

3.54

0.5 below England (4.09)

Trends

Attendance

Autumn and spring 2024/25 from DfE pupil absence data (where published for this URN). The headline above uses the same period.

  • 92.8%
    2020/21
  • 87.9%
    2021/22
  • 89.3%
    2022/23
  • 88.3%
    2023/24
  • 87.8%
    2024/25

Admissions

Applications and offers (September 2026 entry)

For September 2026 entry, 213 families put this school first. All of them were offered a place here.

Named as first preference
213
First-preference offers
213
First preferences offered a place
100%
Total offers
243
Named on any preference
481

This is historic demand from one admissions round. It is not a guarantee of a place, and it does not show a catchment area. Admission rules and priorities differ by school.

SourceDfE applications and offers, September 2026 entryPublished 18th of June 2026.

How full the building is

Roll versus published capacity
Close to published capacity
Published capacity (GIAS)
1620
Pupils on roll
1514

Pupils on roll compared with the capacity published in GIAS. This is about building size, not applications or offers, and it is not a guarantee of a place.

Applications and offers come from DfE. Last distance offered and catchment areas are not published nationally. Your council admissions booklet has those details.

Check your council admissions booklet via the St. Helens page.

SEN support

SEN %
20.5%

A higher SEN percentage can mean experience with support needs, or more demand on staff. Ask the SENCO what is available day to day.

Schools near Cowley International College

Distances are in a straight line from this school. They are not catchment areas.

Other nearby schools

All schools in WA10 · Schools in St. Helens

Sources and freshness

  • School year for most DfE figures: 2024/25.
  • Pipeline last checked: Oct 2026.
  • Council and England attendance / FSM tables: 2024/25.
  • School figures from DfE / GIAS / Ofsted where published. District averages use other schools in this postcode district. Council and England figures use DfE local authority and national tables for the matching phase.
  • We do not publish school photos. The banner shows initials from the school name.
  • Methodology · Data updates