Longhill High School Review 2026: Rottingdean’s 11–16 Community Secondary

On Falmer Road in Rottingdean, GCSE results are collected under the canopy in front of Longhill Sports Centre, a small detail that hints at how central the site’s shared facilities are to daily school life. Longhill High School opened in 1963 and is a state secondary school for boys and girls aged 11 to 16 in Brighton, East Sussex, with a published capacity of 1200.

It is a non-selective community school with no sixth form, so the story here is about Years 7 to 11: how quickly students settle, how consistently routines are held, and how well the school supports progress towards GCSEs and the next step beyond 16. Travel is a practical part of the equation too, with several Brighton and Hove bus routes running to the school.

The phrase Aspiration + Determination + Success appears across the school’s messaging, and it matches the direction of travel described in official reporting: higher expectations, clearer routines, and a stronger sense of purpose after a period of disruption. The headteacher is Rachelle Otulakowski (referred to on the school website as Mrs Otulakowski), and recent years have included significant staffing and leadership change, which matters because consistency is the difference between a school that feels calm and one that feels like it is constantly restarting.

There is a deliberately structured feel to the day. Staff presence at the start of the morning, a tightened approach to behaviour, and a renewed focus on uniform all point to a school trying to make the basics non-negotiable: students in lessons, ready to learn, and expected to participate rather than opt out. The tone is inclusive and mainstream, with no religious character, and the school talks openly about supporting every child “regardless of their starting point”, which is a realistic framing for families who want ambition without pretending everyone arrives at the same academic baseline.

The most recent Ofsted inspection rated the school Requires Improvement.

GCSE results

Start with the headline positioning. Ranked 3378th in England and 11th in Brighton for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), Longhill sits below England average on this measure, in the lower 40% of secondary schools.

The underlying numbers show why the school has improvement work to do. The most recently published Attainment 8 score is 36.1 and the Progress 8 score is -0.7, indicating that, overall, students make less progress than other pupils in England with similar starting points. The EBacc picture is also modest: the average EBacc APS is 3.13 compared with an England average of 4.08, and 8.3% of pupils achieved grades 5 or above in EBacc subjects.

For families, this is not a reason to dismiss the school out of hand; it is a prompt to get specific. Ask how the school identifies gaps early, how it keeps learning time protected (especially for students who find school hardest), and what changes have been made to improve consistency of teaching across subjects. If you are weighing options locally, FindMySchool’s comparison tools are useful for lining up Attainment 8 and Progress 8 side-by-side with other Brighton secondaries, so you can see where the gap is narrowing and where it remains stubborn.

Longhill runs a three-year Key Stage 3, and then moves into Key Stage 4 at the beginning of Year 10, with students taking core subjects alongside four chosen options. That structure can suit students who benefit from time to build confidence and breadth before GCSE decisions are locked in, especially in a school where staff are working hard to tighten consistency across classrooms.

What helps is a push towards predictable lesson routines. External monitoring describes lessons beginning with tasks that revisit prior learning and, at their best, teachers checking understanding and adapting instruction to tackle misconceptions. Where teaching is less secure, the risk is familiar: work is not well matched, checks do not capture who is keeping up, and lessons move on too quickly. Families should listen for practical answers here. Not “we have high expectations”, but how staff are trained, how subject leadership supports consistency, and what happens when a student falls behind mid-unit.

The school also builds in structured support beyond lessons. An Independent Learning club runs after school on Mondays in the library, framed as supervised space with access to computers and resources. That kind of quiet, bounded provision can be a genuine advantage for students who struggle to work at home or who need an extra hour of guided focus to keep on top of homework.

With no sixth form, Longhill’s job is to prepare students for a clean transition at 16: A-level study, vocational routes, apprenticeships, or employment with training. The school links careers guidance to external partners, including local colleges as well as the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex, and it also has statutory duties around ensuring students can access information about technical qualifications and apprenticeships.

There is a strong practical thread running through this. Work experience happens in the summer of Year 10 as a three-day placement, with preparation built into PSHE so students learn the mechanics of applications, CVs, and workplace expectations before they step into a placement. That matters because confidence at 16 is not only about grades. It is also about knowing how to present yourself, how to ask for help, and how to make a plan when the first idea does not work out.

For families, the key question is how well the school personalises next steps. Students who are academically secure will want guidance on post-16 choices and subject combinations; students who are less secure may need sharper support around attendance, routines, and achievable pathways that still open doors.

The admissions story is straightforward in shape and slightly pressured in reality. In the latest published demand data, there were 148 applications for 105 offers, which is about 1.41 applications per place. That is oversubscribed, but it is not the extreme intensity you see in the most over-demanded urban schools. Still, families should treat it as competitive enough to plan carefully, including sensible lower-risk preferences alongside the aspirational one.

Longhill is non-selective and sits within Brighton and Hove’s coordinated admissions system, so the practical work for parents is less about tests and more about criteria, catchment, and documentation. Brighton and Hove’s admissions arrangements have also seen recent changes in the east of the city, so it is wise to treat last year’s assumptions as exactly that: last year’s. If you are shortlisting based on location, the FindMySchoolMap Search is a helpful way to sanity-check distances and catchment positioning against the criteria that actually drive allocation.

On visits and tours, focus on the details that matter for an 11–16 school: how Year 7 transition is supported, what behaviour looks like in ordinary lessons, and how the school keeps students learning when motivation dips in the middle years.

The pastoral picture has two clear strands: stronger day-to-day structure and a sharper emphasis on wellbeing. Student leadership roles include a student council and mental health champions, a useful sign that the school is trying to make support visible and normal rather than something students access only in crisis.

Behaviour is described as improving and classrooms are generally calm and orderly when systems are applied consistently. Bullying is reported to have reduced, and students describe having trusted adults to turn to, which is a baseline any family should insist on. Safeguarding arrangements are described as effective, and staff training and awareness are treated as a strength, which will reassure parents who want clarity about how concerns are handled.

The harder edge of the wellbeing story is attendance. External reporting is explicit that overall attendance remains significantly below England average, and that too many students miss substantial parts of their education. For families, that is not abstract. It shapes classroom pace, peer culture, and the amount of reteaching teachers must do. Ask what has changed in attendance strategy, how the school works with families where absence is entrenched, and how it supports students whose anxiety or disengagement makes school feel like a daily battle.

Longhill’s enrichment is not a token add-on. The school describes an “impressively wide” range of activities in official reporting, and it is easy to find named programmes that give texture to the offer.

Clubs & enrichment

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is established as a school option, and the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is active, with the school participating in an annual camp and training programme. For some students, these structured experiences are a turning point: a chance to build resilience, teamwork and confidence in a setting that feels different from lessons, while still being safely supervised and purposeful.

The school also runs Enrichment Week for Years 7 to 9, with Year 10 undertaking a work experience week, and it supports sport with published timetables and fixtures calendars. There is also a clear community-facing element through Friends of Longhill (the parent, teacher and friends association), which matters because schools that improve fastest usually bring families with them rather than doing change to them.

Sport

Facilities help here. The site includes sports fields and tennis courts, and Longhill Sports Centre opened as a community facility in 2004. The school is also recognised as an Equal Access School by the England Football Association, signalling intent to widen participation rather than restricting sport to a narrow performance cohort.

The school day begins with morning registration at 8:15, with lessons running from 8:20, and the day ending at 2:45. Transport is unusually specific for a Brighton secondary: Brighton and Hove buses run regular routes to the school, including services 2, 22A, 52, 72, 76 and 76A, and the school supports new Year 7 students with bus monitors and short-term escorting to buses while routines settle.

For drivers, the school encourages car shares to reduce traffic and congestion around the surrounding roads. Cycling is also part of the picture, with guidance around safe routes and references to local cycle training.

Academic outcomes and consistency: The latest published Progress 8 score is -0.7 and the school’s GCSE ranking sits in the lower 40% of secondaries in England on this measure. This makes it especially important to understand how teaching consistency is being improved across subjects and what targeted support looks like for students who fall behind.

Attendance: External reporting is clear that attendance remains significantly below England average. A school can have strong plans on paper, but missing learning time is hard to recover, particularly at Key Stage 4.

Competition for places: Demand is real, with 148 applications for 105 offers (about 1.41 applications per place). Families should build realistic preferences and keep an eye on local admissions criteria, which have recently changed in parts of Brighton.

Travel and the shape of the day: With multiple bus routes serving the school and a relatively early finish, clubs, fixtures and after-school support can extend the day beyond the headline timetable. Consider the return journey as carefully as the morning one, especially for Year 7.

Longhill High School is a long-established community secondary with a large site, a strong emphasis on routines, and a serious enrichment offer that includes Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and an active CCF. It is also a school in the middle of improvement work: raising expectations, tightening teaching consistency, and tackling the blunt obstacle of attendance.

Best suited to families in Brighton’s east and the Rottingdean area who want a non-selective 11–16 school with structured support beyond lessons and a wide range of activities. The limiting factor is not ambition; it is whether the school’s improving systems translate into consistently better learning and outcomes for the individual student in front of you.