Ridgeway Academy
Secondary school · Hertfordshire
Herns Lane, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 2AF
This school became an academy on 1 September 2018. Before that it was a foundation school, under Sir Frederic Osborn School (URN 117525).
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First preferences per place, 2026
0.59
How many families named it first, for each place it gave out. Higher than 8% of schools admitting at Year 7 in England that year.
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Offers made, 2026
168
Places given out on offer day. Not the number of places the school had, which is not published per year group.
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Latest Ofsted
Not judged
Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework), June 2025.
About the school
- Type of school
- Academy
- Academy trust
- Ambition Education Trust
- Became an academy
- 1 September 2018. Before that it was a foundation school, under Sir Frederic Osborn School (URN 117525).
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Boys or girls
- Boys and girls
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Website
- https://ridgeway.herts.sch.uk/
- Telephone
- 01707 351350
- School number (URN)
- 146305
Other schools run by Ambition Education Trust
Ambition Education Trust runs 9 other schools with a page here.
- Beech Hyde Primary School and Nursery, St. Albans (4.8 miles away)
- Skyswood Primary & Nursery School, St Albans (5.8 miles away)
- Sandringham School, St Albans (5.9 miles away)
- Wheatfields Infants' and Nursery School, St. Albans (6.1 miles away)
- Verulam School, St Albans (6.7 miles away)
- St Albans Girls' School, St Albans (6.9 miles away)
- Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School, St Albans (7.3 miles away)
- Alban City School, St Albans (7.4 miles away)
- The Adeyfield Academy, Hemel Hempstead (12.1 miles away)
From Get Information about Schools, retrieved 2 September 2026. Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.
How big the school is
In 2024 this school had 1,160 places and 912 children on roll.
248 places were unfilled, which is 21% of the school.
In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 841 children on roll on average, against 912 in 2024.
Its places have fallen from 1,226 in 2009 to 1,160 in 2024.
Places are the whole school added up, every year group together. That is not the number of places a school offers to new children in one year.
Source: Department for Education school capacity collection.
Children in each year group
As counted on one day in January 2026, the most recent school census. These are children, not places.
Children in each year group at Ridgeway Academy
| Year group | Children |
|---|---|
| Year 7 | 150 |
| Year 8 | 146 |
| Year 9 | 178 |
| Year 10 | 155 |
| Year 11 | 149 |
| Year 12 | 42 |
| Year 13 | 55 |
This is not a list of spare places. Places per year group are not published, and the count is from January. Children join and leave all year, so a year group that looked two under in January can be full by March.
If you are moving into the area and need a place during the school year, ask Hertfordshire. Councils handle applications made during the school year, including for schools that set their own admission rules. They hold the up-to-date position, which this page does not.
Who decides who gets a place
This school sets its own admission rules, through its academy trust, rather than Hertfordshire setting them.
Look on the school's own website for its admission arrangements. An admission authority has to agree its rules every year and publish them. The council still takes the application.
Taken from the kind of school this is, as recorded by the Department for Education. We do not hold this school's rules themselves: a summary of an admission rule is not the rule, and only the admission authority's own published arrangements are binding.
How to apply
Applications for a place starting in September 2027 closed on 31 October 2026, unless your council set a later date.
That is a Saturday, and some councils accept applications until the next working day. Your council's website gives its own closing date.
Councils send every offer for secondary school places on the same day, 1 March 2027 or the next working day.
An application made after the closing date is what the rules call a late application. It is still a normal application and the council still handles it, but it is dealt with after the ones that arrived on time, so it does not get an answer on the day above.
You apply through the council where you live, even for a school in another area. You do not apply to the school. Find your council's secondary school application on GOV.UK.
If you live in Hertfordshire, the council's own page explains how to apply there. Hertfordshire school admissions.
To ask about visiting the school, or anything else about it, contact the school. Website: https://ridgeway.herts.sch.uk/. Telephone: 01707 351350.
Links and dates can change. Your council's own website has the final word. The dates are set nationally by the School Admissions Code 2021. GOV.UK link checked 23 September 2026. Hertfordshire's page checked 23 September 2026. Contact details from Get Information about Schools.
How many families applied
Preferences expressed and offers made at Year 7, as published by the Department for Education. These describe demand, not whether a particular child would be offered a place.
In the 2026 intake, 99 families named Ridgeway Academy as their first preference, and the school made 168 offers.
That is 0.59 first preferences per place offered, higher than 8% of schools admitting at Year 7 in England that year.
Fewer first preferences per place. Across the 5 most recent years held, first preferences per place averaged 0.94 in 2022–2023 and 0.56 in 2025–2026.
First preferences for this school fell 45%, from 171 a year in 2022–2023 to 94 in 2025–2026. Across all 78 schools in Hertfordshire admitting at Year 7, first preferences changed little over the same years, from 15,120 to 14,743.
Counts of families, not places.
Across Hertfordshire as a whole, 77.5% of families applying for a secondary place for September 2026 were offered their first choice, and 92.4% were offered one of the three schools they named. That is a figure for the council, not for this school. How the 2026 round went in Hertfordshire.
Compared with its own past
Fewer families than its recent average put this school first.
In 2026, 99 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 142 a year.
In 2026, 278 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 355 a year.
In 2026, every family who put this school first was offered a place here (99 of 99). In 2021 to 2025 it was 98 in every 100.
In 2026, 0 of the 168 offers went to children living outside Hertfordshire. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 0 a year.
Each figure is compared only with the same figure at this school. "About the same" means within 10 in every 100 of the average.
First preferences and offers at Year 7
Families naming Ridgeway Academy first, against the offers it made, for every intake year held.
Figures before 2019 are from Sir Frederic Osborn School, the school this one replaced, before it became an academy. The government's school register links the two, and they are the same school.
| Intake | 1st preferences1st choice | All preferencesAny choice | Offers madeOffers | 1st prefs per placePer place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 99 | 278 | 168 | 0.59 |
| 2025 | 88 | 246 | 168 | 0.52 |
| 2024 | 105 | 313 | 173 | 0.61 |
| 2023 | 174 | 399 | 194 | 0.90 |
| 2022 | 168 | 396 | 172 | 0.98 |
| 2021 | 176 | 422 | 177 | 0.99 |
| 2020 | 206 | 405 | 177 | 1.16 |
| 2019 | 167 | 391 | 207 | 0.81 |
| 2018 as Sir Frederic Osborn School |
125 | 329 | 160 | 0.78 |
| 2017 as Sir Frederic Osborn School |
100 | 306 | 164 | 0.61 |
| 2016 as Sir Frederic Osborn School |
79 | 254 | 101 | 0.78 |
| 2015 as Sir Frederic Osborn School |
78 | 247 | 103 | 0.76 |
| 2014 as Sir Frederic Osborn School |
64 | 235 | 103 | 0.62 |
“Offers made” is the number of offers on offer day, not the number of places the school has.
Source: Department for Education: school-level applications and offers, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
Where families put this school on their list
In 2026 this school made 168 offers: 99 to families who had named it first, 21 to families who named it second and 12 to families who named it third.
36 offers went to families who named it fourth or lower, or who were admitted another way.
A school is not allowed to treat a family differently because of where it sat on their list. The School Admissions Code says an admission authority must not give extra priority to children whose parents rank preferred schools in a particular order.
The order is used at the end, by the council, and not by the school. Where more than one school could take a child, the council offers the one the family put highest.
Leaving the other boxes empty does not change how this school considers an application. If none of the schools a family names can offer a place, the council has to offer one at a school that has room, and that school may be further away.
Source: Department for Education school level applications and offers, and the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraphs 1.9 and 2.11.
Ofsted
Ofsted changed its inspection framework: the current one publishes several graded areas and no single overall grade, while the previous one published an overall effectiveness grade. Each inspection below states which framework produced it.
Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework), 3 June 2025
- Overall effectiveness
- Not judged
- Quality of education
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Sixth form / post-16
- Good
Ofsted's report for this school
Source: Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
If you are refused a place
In 2026, families in Hertfordshire lodged 722 appeals about a secondary school place.
515 of them were heard by a panel and 92 succeeded, which is about 18 in every 100 heard.
The other 207 did not reach a panel. Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first.
This is a record of decisions already made. A panel hears one case at a time and decides it on what that family sets out, so these figures do not indicate what would happen in any particular appeal.
These count appeals about every school in Hertfordshire, not this school. Nobody publishes appeal figures school by school.
Source: Department for Education, admission appeals in England, reporting year 2026.
Waiting lists
Being refused a place does not end the application. Every admission authority has to keep a waiting list until at least 31 December of the school year the child would have started, and some keep them for longer.
A waiting list is not a queue. The rules say a child cannot be given priority for having joined it earlier, or for having applied earlier. The list is put back in order against the school's own admission rules every time a child is added, so a place can move further away as well as nearer.
Councils differ on whether a refused child goes onto the list automatically. The council that sent the refusal is the only place that can say which it does.
From the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraph 2.15.
Children with special educational needs
In January 2026, 29 of the 875 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 3 in every 100. That is close to the middle for schools in England, where the middle figure is 4 in every 100.
A further 174 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 20 in every 100, against a middle figure of 15 in every 100 across England.
A school named in a child's education, health and care plan has to admit that child. That duty holds even when the school is full, and it sits outside the rules that decide who gets a place when there are more children than places. Which school is named is decided with the council while the plan is being written, not through the normal application.
Source: Department for Education, special educational needs in England, January 2026 census.
Who goes to this school
In January 2026, 290 of the 875 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 33 in every 100.
More children are eligible here than at half of secondary schools in England, where the middle figure is 27 in every 100.
English was not the first language for 9 in every 100 children here. Across secondary schools the middle figure is 12 in every 100.
This describes the children who go to this school. It is not a measure of the school. Most children go to a school near home, so it is mostly a fact about the streets around it.
This matters when reading results. Across the 3,610 schools we hold 2024 key stage 4 results for, the fifth with the fewest eligible children averaged 81% getting grade 4 or above in English and maths. The fifth with the most averaged 35%.
Those are averages of many schools all over the country. This school's own results are further down this page exactly as published.
Source: Department for Education school census, January 2026. Free school meal eligibility is counted for every pupil on roll.
Exam results
Published by the Department for Education for the whole year group. Figures for smaller cohorts are withheld by DfE to protect pupil privacy and appear here as a dash, not a zero.
Key stage 4: what these numbers are made of
Getting grade 4 or above in English and maths.
Across the 3 years published, this measure ran from 48.4% in 2024 to 57.2% in 2022, a difference of 8.8 points.
The year group had 153 children, so one child is worth about 0.7 percentage points and that difference is about 13 children.
Half of schools in England move by 6 points or more across the same three years.
| Year | Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | Grade 4+ English & maths | EBacc grade 4+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 35.70 | - | 48.4% | 4.6% |
| 2023/24 | 37.90 | -0.47 likely between -0.69 and -0.26 |
50.6% | 6.0% |
| 2022/23 | 38.90 | -0.36 likely between -0.59 and -0.12 |
57.2% | 4.1% |
Progress 8 compares pupils here with pupils nationally who had similar results at the end of primary school; 0 is average. It is an estimate, and DfE publishes a range it is likely to fall within. Where that range spans zero, the school cannot be said to be above or below average.
Teachers staying and leaving
These come from the School Workforce Census, which follows each teacher into the next year. The numbers count full-time jobs, so a teacher who works half the week counts as half. They are not a count of people.
The share of teachers who left, each year
Counted as full-time jobs rather than people, and counting a move to another state school as leaving this one.
| Census year | Teachers (FTE) | Still there a year later | Moved to another state school | Left state schools | Left in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 49.6 | 37.3 | 7.0 | 5.3 | 24.8% |
| 2023/24 | 49.7 | 32.9 | 10.2 | 6.7 | 34.0% |
| 2022/23 | 50.9 | 35.3 | 9.6 | 6.0 | 30.6% |
| 2021/22 | 37.2 | 26.3 | 7.6 | 3.3 | 29.3% |
| 2020/21 | 36.5 | 29.9 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 18.1% |
| 2019/20 | 37.6 | 32.5 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 13.6% |
This is turnover among teachers. It says nothing about the headteacher or the senior leadership team: DfE publishes leadership retention separately and we do not hold it by school.
Catchment area
Nobody publishes a catchment area map for this school that we can read. That does not mean an address is outside its area. It means we hold no map, so we cannot tell you either way.
How places were allocated
Hertfordshire publishes these figures on national offer day, the day families are told which school their child has been given. It is the only place that says how the school chose between the children who applied.
How far away children were admitted from
This school was full in 6 of the 7 years we hold, 2019 to 2025.
In half of those years the furthest child admitted lived between 1.66 and 6.99 miles away. Across all of them it ran from 1.45 miles in 2022 to 18.7 miles in 2024. The council does not say whether it measured in a straight line or along a route.
In 2025, the newest year we hold, it was 7.8 miles.
In 1 of those years the school was not full, and every child who applied for a place was offered one.
One year's distance is not a boundary. It is what happened that year, and it depends on how many families applied.
2025 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 180
Places offered: 180
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Outside Priority Area, Distance
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 7.8 miles away (12545 m)
Hertfordshire does not say whether it measures these across the map or along the route a child would walk, so neither do we.
2024 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 180
Places offered: 180
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Outside Priority Area, Distance
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 18.7 miles away (30087 m)
2023 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 180
Places offered: 210
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: In Priority Area, Not Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 4.55 miles away (7320 m)
2022 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 180
Places offered: 180
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: In Priority Area, Not Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 1.45 miles away (2336 m)
2021 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 180
Places offered: 180
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: In Priority Area, Not Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 1.55 miles away (2492 m)
2020 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 180
Places offered: 180
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: In Priority Area, Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 1.97 miles away (3173 m)
2019 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 215
Places offered: 207
More children wanted a place than there were places: no
The rule that decided the last place: In Priority Area, Not Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 4.37 miles away (7035 m) (every child who applied got a place, so this is not a cut-off)
How the places were shared out
Schools that get more applications than they have places have to choose. Each school has a list of rules, and it works down the list until the places run out. Hertfordshire publishes how many children got in under each rule. These are Hertfordshire's own names for its own rules, so they do not mean the same thing at a school in another area.
2025 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| In Priority Area, Nearest School | 70 |
| Siblings | 43 |
| Non ranked allocation | 37 |
| In Priority Area, Not Nearest School | 20 |
| Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan | 7 |
| Children of Staff | 2 |
| Outside Priority Area, Distance | 1 |
| All the children counted here | 180 |
2023 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| In Priority Area, Nearest School | 90 |
| Siblings | 63 |
| In Priority Area, Not Nearest School | 37 |
| Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan | 12 |
| Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After | 3 |
| Non ranked allocation | 3 |
| Children of Staff | 2 |
| All the children counted here | 210 |
2022 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| In Priority Area, Nearest School | 101 |
| Siblings | 48 |
| In Priority Area, Not Nearest School | 19 |
| Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan | 8 |
| Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After | 2 |
| Medical/Social | 2 |
| All the children counted here | 180 |
2021 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| In Priority Area, Nearest School | 95 |
| Siblings | 64 |
| In Priority Area, Not Nearest School | 17 |
| SEN (Special Educational Needs) | 3 |
| Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After | 1 |
| All the children counted here | 180 |
2020 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| In Priority Area, Nearest School | 104 |
| Siblings | 59 |
| In Priority Area, Not Nearest School | 11 |
| SEN (Special Educational Needs) | 3 |
| Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After | 2 |
| Children Of Staff | 1 |
| All the children counted here | 180 |
2019 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| In Priority Area, Nearest School | 97 |
| Siblings | 45 |
| In Priority Area, Not Nearest School | 42 |
| Non Ranked Allocation | 21 |
| Outside Priority Area, Distance | 2 |
| All the children counted here | 207 |
A rule that let nobody in that year is not listed. Some children are given a place at a school they did not ask for, because they have to go somewhere, and no rule applies to them.
Where it is, and schools nearby
The 6 nearest secondary schools we hold figures for, by straight-line distance from Ridgeway Academy.
- Monk's Walk School: 3.0 km (1.8 miles) north-west, Welwyn Garden City
- Stanborough School: 3.1 km (1.9 miles) south-west, Welwyn Garden City
- The Sele School: 5.3 km (3.3 miles) east, Hertford
- Onslow St Audrey's School: 5.5 km (3.4 miles) south-west, Hatfield
- Bishop's Hatfield Girls' School: 5.8 km (3.6 miles) south-west, Hatfield
- Richard Hale School: 7.1 km (4.4 miles) east, Hertford
Nearby and related
- Other schools near Ridgeway Academy
- All schools in Hertfordshire
- Schools in the AL7 postcode district
- What data we hold
- This page as JSON: the same figures, for software that would rather not read a web page
Where these figures come from
- Department for Education: Get Information about Schools. School identity, type, phase, address, contact details and how it is run
Retrieved 2 September 2026 - GOV.UK: apply for a school place. Where to find your council's secondary school application. Link checked 23 September 2026
- Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information. Inspection outcomes, published monthly
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school-level applications and offers. Preferences and offers, 2014 to 2026 intakes
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school pupils and their characteristics. Children in each year group, January 2026 census
- Department for Education: school capacity. Places and pupils on roll, 2009 to 2024
- Hertfordshire: offer-day statistics. 2025-secondary.pdf
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Hertfordshire: admission rule breakdown. How places were shared out, 2019 to 2025 intakes
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: key stage 4 performance. Attainment 8, Progress 8 and EBacc, by school
Retrieved 4 September 2026 - Department for Education: school workforce in England. Teacher turnover, by school, from the School Workforce Census
Retrieved 4 September 2026
Using this information
This is information only, not advice. It may have mistakes in it, or be out of date. Check with the school and the council before you decide anything. We collect these figures from official publications and check them, but mistakes can get through. If you find one, tell us.
Figures current as of 14 September 2026.
This page was updated on 5 November 2026. "Retrieved" is the date of our copy of each source, not the year its figures describe. How we compare schools.