Chenderit School Review 2026: A comprehensive 11 to 18 with a distinctive visual arts pathway

A school that combines mainstream comprehensive breadth with a clear creative identity. Chenderit’s on-site Heseltine Gallery, a purpose-built glass-and-steel exhibition space, is an unusual asset for a state secondary and speaks to the school’s long-running emphasis on visual arts and public-facing cultural work.

Leadership is currently under Chris Billings, who took up the headship in September 2024, following the retirement of the previous head.

The latest Ofsted inspection (27 and 28 September 2022, published 10 November 2022) judged the school Good overall, with Sixth-form provision rated Outstanding.

Chenderit’s culture, as described through its published materials and external evaluation, is built around clear routines and expectations, with a tone that aims for calmness rather than constant intensity. Lessons for Years 7 to 11 are described as orderly and settled, and the sixth form is positioned as a more mature academic environment with personalised support from staff.

The school’s public-facing arts presence is a defining feature. The Heseltine Gallery is not a decorative add-on, it is designed to showcase artists and craftspeople alongside student work, through regularly changing exhibitions supported by a volunteer committee and a membership scheme. For students who thrive when their work has a real audience, that sort of infrastructure can raise motivation and pride in craft, particularly in art, photography, and creative project work.

Values are expressed in a simple, memorable triad, Aim High, Work Hard, Be Kind. In practice, the most useful question for parents is how consistently those values show up in routines and relationships. External commentary highlights respectful peer and adult relationships and a strong sense that behaviour and classroom norms are taken seriously.

Chenderit is ranked for both GCSE and A-level outcomes, with a mixed picture that is helpful to interpret in context.

GCSE performance and ranking

Ranked 1,778th in England and 4th in Banbury for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), Chenderit sits in line with the middle 35% of schools in England (25th to 60th percentile).

Attainment 8 is 47.9, with a Progress 8 score of +0.18, indicating students make above-average progress from their starting points. EBacc entry is an important contextual indicator in comprehensive schools; the England benchmark is 40.5% for the proportion entering the EBacc, and the school’s EBacc average point score is 4.21 compared with an England benchmark of 4.08.

Sixth form A-level outcomes and ranking

Ranked 1,707th in England and 8th in Banbury for A-level outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), Chenderit falls below England average overall on this measure.

Grade distribution provides the clearest insight. At A-level, 2.26% of grades are A*, 13.12% are A, and 41.18% are A* to B. England benchmarks are 23.6% for A* to A and 47.2% for A* to B, which suggests the school’s A-level profile is somewhat less top-heavy than the England comparator.

The practical implication is that Chenderit looks strongest for families who want a well-structured comprehensive secondary with a well-regarded sixth form experience and strong pastoral scaffolding, while understanding that headline A-level grade distributions are not its primary differentiator. Where the sixth form stands out is in its structure, support, and wider preparation rather than purely in top-grade concentration.

Parents comparing local options may find the FindMySchool Local Hub and Comparison Tool useful for placing these GCSE and A-level rankings alongside nearby schools in the Banbury area.

The curriculum is described as ambitious in intent, with subject leaders specifying key knowledge and sequencing, and teaching generally benefiting from secure subject knowledge. A recurring theme is clarity of explanation and the use of routines to keep classrooms settled.

Where Chenderit is particularly explicit is in literacy and reading. The curriculum overview describes multiple literacy enrichment activities and a structured reading challenge, including an annual Reading Millionaire challenge, designed to encourage sustained reading across the academic year.

Support for students who need reading intervention is also highlighted in the inspection evidence. Those who require additional reading support are identified quickly, and a phonics programme is used to build fluency. For families with a child whose confidence in reading is uneven, this matters, because it points to a school that treats literacy as everyone’s responsibility rather than an isolated intervention.

A balanced view should also note the improvement focus identified externally, namely consistency in how curriculum ambition is enacted across Years 7 to 11. The practical implication for parents is to ask, at open events or tours, how departments ensure that students are helped to connect ideas over time, not simply complete short units effectively.

Chenderit is a school with a sixth form, so progression routes matter across three groups: Year 11 leavers, Year 13 leavers, and students joining the sixth form from elsewhere.

General destinations and routes

For the 2023/24 leavers cohort (cohort size 83), 54% progressed to university, 27% entered employment, 4% began apprenticeships, and 1% went to further education. These figures indicate that the sixth form supports a broad spectrum of next steps, not only university pathways.

That blend is consistent with the school’s stated approach to post-18 guidance, which covers university applications, apprenticeships, and employment routes, with structured support beginning in Year 12.

Oxbridge pipeline

Over the measured period, 10 applications were made to Oxford and Cambridge combined, resulting in 1 offer and 1 acceptance (Cambridge). The numbers are small, but they show that Oxbridge is present as a pathway for the strongest candidates, even if it is not the defining feature of the school’s destination profile.

The more relevant question for most families is whether high academic aspiration is supported without crowding out other pathways. Chenderit’s sixth form messaging consistently frames success as multiple routes, with university guidance alongside apprenticeships and employment preparation.

Chenderit’s admissions story has one distinctive element that parents should understand early: a Visual Arts criterion pathway that can involve portfolio submission.

Year 7 entry for September 2026

Applications for September 2026 entry open on 10 September 2025, with a deadline of midnight on 31 October 2025. Offers are issued on National Offer Day (1 March, or the next working day) through the applicant’s home local authority.

For families applying under the Visual Arts criterion, the school specifies a portfolio submission deadline of 3pm on Friday 17 October 2025. This is important because it introduces an additional evidential step and a separate deadline within the broader local authority timetable.

Demand indicators in the available dataset describe the school as oversubscribed, with 2.16 applications per place in the latest reported cycle. The practical implication is that admissions planning should be realistic, especially for families applying from further away. (No last-distance figure is available here, so it is sensible to focus on criteria and deadlines, then validate your position against current patterns through official admissions materials.)

Where distance is a key criterion, families often benefit from using FindMySchool Map Search to understand how their home location relates to typical allocation patterns.

Sixth form entry

The sixth form accepts new applicants for September 2026 and expects most students to study three Level 3 courses (A-levels and/or applied alternatives, including AAQs), with additional support available for study skills and a programme of core study covering modern Britain themes.

The school encourages early, structured preparation for post-18 routes, aiming to have UCAS applications submitted before the October half term in Year 13 for most students, while noting that medicine, dentistry, and veterinary courses usually have an earlier mid-October deadline.

Pastoral care at Chenderit is anchored in routine and supervision rather than novelty. The school day includes a daily tutor period labelled personal development, which creates predictable time for checking in, guidance, and community-building.

A strength for many families is the way safeguarding and safety are framed. The school is described as a place where pupils feel safe and are comfortable sharing concerns with staff, and where staff training and reporting processes are established and monitored.

Attendance is one of the more meaningful signals of wellbeing and engagement, and the external improvement focus highlights attendance for vulnerable pupils as an area where the school has work to do in measuring impact and ensuring support translates into consistent attendance. For parents, this is less a reason to avoid the school and more a prompt to ask how attendance support is targeted, tracked, and escalated.

Chenderit’s enrichment offer is best described as a combination of creative identity, structured personal development, and a broad extracurricular menu that changes across the year.

Arts and creative life

The Heseltine Gallery is the headline feature, and it has practical implications. When student work can sit alongside wider exhibitions, it changes the stakes of effort and presentation, especially for those who respond to real-world audiences and authentic critique.

Music and performance appear in the wider life of the school, with external commentary referencing a musical theatre society and student-led clubs in the sixth form, including drama club supported by staff.

Clubs and student identity

The most useful indicator of breadth is not a generic list but the specificity of named groups. The inspection evidence references a girls’ football club and a ‘Plus’ group focused on equality and inclusion, alongside the encouragement for sixth form students to set up their own clubs.

Trips and wider experiences

External evaluation notes both local and international trips, with examples including the Black Country Museum and a trip to Rome. For many students, trips are where confidence and friendships consolidate, particularly around transition points such as early Key Stage 3 and GCSE years.

Sixth form enrichment and work experience

The sixth form structure includes an enrichment expectation, with 30 hours of enrichment across Year 12 referenced in both inspection evidence and sixth form materials. This is positioned alongside work experience, including a dedicated week later in Year 12, and a community project running through the year. For students, the implication is that university and employment applications are supported by a portfolio of experiences rather than being left to last-minute personal statement drafting.

The school day runs from an 8:40am start in tutor time to a 3:00pm finish, with a five-lesson structure and a lunchtime beginning at 1:30pm. The published weekly teaching time is 32 hours and 5 minutes.

Transport is supported through a mix of car travel, school buses for students travelling from Northamptonshire, and public buses for students travelling from Oxfordshire. Parents considering longer commutes should review current transport arrangements carefully, as routes and pass arrangements can change year to year.

Wraparound care is not usually a core feature of secondary schools; where early supervision or after-school study is needed, it is sensible to ask directly what is available beyond the published timetable and enrichment programme.

• Admissions requires deadline discipline. The main Year 7 deadline for September 2026 is 31 October 2025, but the Visual Arts pathway introduces an earlier portfolio deadline (17 October 2025). Families should plan around both dates if applying under that criterion.

• Curriculum consistency is a stated improvement focus. External evaluation highlights that some teachers need stronger strategies to help pupils connect knowledge logically over time in Years 7 to 11. Ask how leaders are supporting departments to make this consistent across subjects.

• Attendance support, especially for vulnerable pupils, merits scrutiny. Published evidence points to work still needed in ensuring that attendance support translates into sustained improvement. Families for whom attendance stability is a key concern should explore how monitoring and follow-up work in practice.

• A-level outcomes are not the school’s main headline strength. The sixth form is described as well-structured and supportive, but the A-level grade profile sits below England benchmarks. Students targeting the most competitive courses should discuss subject-level support and stretching provision early.

Chenderit suits families who want a settled, mainstream comprehensive secondary with a genuine creative identity and a sixth form that takes structure, enrichment, and post-18 preparation seriously. The on-site Heseltine Gallery and the Visual Arts admissions pathway give the school a point of difference that is rare in the state sector.

It is best suited to students who benefit from clear routines and who will use enrichment opportunities, whether that is performance, equality and inclusion work, student-led clubs, or structured sixth form preparation. The key decision point is fit: academic ambition is present, but the strongest differentiator is breadth and creative opportunity rather than a purely top-grade sixth form profile.