Attainment and Attendance in Crawley

What the national model behind How to Pull the Right Lever says about the district’s secondary schools, within West Sussex and alongside Brighton and Hove. Draft for discussion.

Author
Affiliation

Adam Dennett

Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London

Published

November 2, 2026

WarningDraft for discussion

One of the district documents for Sussex. It sits beneath the West Sussex document, and the district summary compares all of the districts. Every figure comes from published Department for Education data and the national models of How to Pull the Right Lever. Nothing uses pupil-level records. The commentary is written to a common pattern from the figures; read it as a starting point for discussion.

Summary

Crawley’s results are among the weakest of England’s districts, on an intake less disadvantaged than England’s. Its 7 state secondary schools are in Crawley.

  • Overall results: 42.1 in Attainment 8 in 2024/25, 235th of 264 districts in England.
  • Disadvantage: 23.4% of pupils are disadvantaged, against 28.3% nationally.
  • Disadvantaged pupils average 30.7, below the national 37.8 (255th of 264).
  • The gap between disadvantaged pupils and the rest is 14.6 points, the 69th widest of 264.

The other findings:

  • For all pupils, Crawley is 4.6 points below England. The largest pieces in the national model are prior attainment (-1.5) and West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-0.7). The district’s schools take 3.3 points beyond what the model expects.
  • For disadvantaged pupils it is 5.3 points below England. The largest pieces are West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-1.5) and being in the South East (-1.3), and the schools take 2.6 points beyond what the model expects.
  • Part of the district effect survives each school’s own record. For non-disadvantaged pupils (-3.5%) it remains with each school’s own record in the model: the nearest thing to a genuine place effect.
  • None of the 7 schools is above expectation over 2021/22 to 2024/25. The strongest is Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley (-1.1); the weakest Thomas Bennett Community College (-6.0).
  • Absence was 8.3% in autumn and spring 2025/26 (8.8% a year earlier), against 8.0% for England and 8.1% for West Sussex. Over 2021/22 to 2024/25 its schools ran in line with what their intakes predict, and Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley and Thomas Bennett Community College more than a point above.
  • Reduced timetables run at 2.1 times the national rate, and suspensions at 0.9 times (18.5 episodes per 100 pupils, against 21.2). That counts episodes, not pupils: 7.0 pupils per 100 were suspended at least once, about 2.7 times each, against 7.3 per 100 and 2.9 times in England.
  • Disadvantaged groups are small, 26 to 67 pupils a year per school. Every school-level figure for them moves from year to year and should be read over several years.

1 About this analysis

Crawley is a district of West Sussex, not a local authority, and that shapes what can be said:

  • The national models place schools in local authorities. The “local authority effect” in this document is West Sussex’s, shared with every school in the county.
  • What is particular to Crawley shows up in its schools’ own residuals, and in the district test of Section 6.
  • Absence and exclusions are summed over the district’s 7 schools, followed through any change of URN.

The methods are described in full in the East Sussex document.

2 The district’s schools

Crawley’s state-funded secondary schools, coloured by overall absence in 2024/25. Choose another measure from the menu above the map; circle size is the school’s roll. Hover for figures and who runs each school.

Every state-funded secondary school in the district, 2024/25, with the size of its disadvantaged Year 11 group. Ofsted (model) is the rating the model uses, from the last graded inspection before September 2024. Ofsted, latest is the most recent judgement in Ofsted’s data as at 30 September 2026, which is a report card’s achievement and curriculum grades, the quality of education grade for an inspection between September 2024 and November 2025 that gave no overall grade, or otherwise the last graded inspection.
School Town Type Pupils FSM % Disadvantaged in Year 11 Absence % KS2 Att 8 Att 8 disadv. Ofsted (model) Ofsted, latest
Hazelwick School Crawley Academy 1890 20.5 62 6.6 4.5 50.1 38.2 Outstanding (Oct 2023) Outstanding (Oct 2023)
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley Crawley Maintained 1359 27.2 56 11.9 4.1 41.6 32.9 Good (Nov 2023) Good (Nov 2023)
Ifield Community College Crawley Maintained 1204 28.8 60 10.9 2.5 40.0 31.9 Good (Feb 2018) Remains Good (Apr 2023, ungraded visit)
Oriel High School Crawley Maintained 1478 12.5 30 8.8 5.1 45.2 27.2 Good (Feb 2012) No overall grade (Mar 2025): quality of education Good
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley Crawley Maintained 1174 13.7 26 6.5 6.1 45.0 30.7 Good (Oct 2012) Remains Good (Mar 2023, ungraded visit)
The Gatwick School Crawley Academy 846 23.2 26 9.2 1.8 39.5 28.2 Good (May 2024) Good (May 2024)
Thomas Bennett Community College Crawley Academy 1262 38.1 67 11.6 2.6 33.0 25.6 Good (Oct 2022) Good (Oct 2022)

4 of the 7 schools are maintained by West Sussex County Council. The academies are run as follows:

  • Hazelwick School, a single-academy trust;
  • The Gatwick School, in Aurora Academies Trust;
  • Thomas Bennett Community College, in The Kemnal Academies Trust;
Figure 1: Who ran each school in 2024/25, and how far its results sat above or below the national model’s expectation over 2021/22 to 2024/25.

3 How Crawley compares

Crawley against West Sussex, Brighton and Hove and England, 2024/25. Means of school-level figures.
Measure Crawley West Sussex Brighton and Hove England
Attainment 8, all pupils 42.1 46.4 45.5 46.8
Attainment 8, disadvantaged 30.7 33.5 33.9 37.7
Attainment 8, non-disadvantaged 45.3 48.9 49.6 49.9
Disadvantage gap (points) 14.6 15.4 15.7 12.2
Disadvantaged (FSM6) % 23.4 17.1 28.8 28.4
Overall absence % 9.3 8.7 11.3 8.6
Persistent absence % 26.3 23.9 30.6 23.9
Mean KS2 (centred) 3.81 4.26 4.71 4.47
EAL % 26.2 11.0 13.0 18.4
Figure 2: Attainment 8 for disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils in West Sussex’s districts, 2024/25, school means. The gap between the two is printed on each district’s line; Crawley is in bold.

Across the years the model covers, the gap was 11.7 points in 2021/22 and 14.6 in 2024/25. Crawley’s non-disadvantaged pupils were above England’s average in 0 of 4 years, and its disadvantaged pupils in 0.

4 What explains attainment in Crawley

Figure 3: Why average Attainment 8 differs from England’s, by factor, all school-years 2021/22 to 2024/25, for Crawley, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove. Approximate Attainment 8 points; the pieces sum to the total in each panel.
The decomposition for Crawley, in Attainment 8 points. ‘Place’ is West Sussex’s effect plus the South East’s; ‘unexplained’ is what the district’s own schools add beyond everything the model accounts for.
Factor All pupils Disadvantaged Non-disadvantaged
Unexplained (school residual) -3.25 -2.61 -3.29
Prior attainment (KS2) -1.51 -1.00 -1.41
Place (region and local authority) -1.20 -2.79 -1.48
Absence -0.01 +0.03 +0.02
Disadvantage (% FSM) +0.17 -0.08 +0.11
Other model terms +0.18 -0.26 +0.16
Teacher workforce +0.20 -0.04 +0.18
Ofsted rating +0.25 +0.22 +0.21
English as an additional language +0.29 +0.80 +0.42

For all pupils, Crawley is 4.6 points below England. The pieces of at least a quarter of a point:

  • prior attainment (-1.51);
  • West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-0.74);
  • being in the South East (-0.46);
  • English as an additional language (+0.29);
  • and the district’s schools themselves (-3.25), beyond what the model expects.

For disadvantaged pupils, Crawley is 5.3 points below England. The pieces of at least a quarter of a point:

  • West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-1.47);
  • being in the South East (-1.32);
  • prior attainment (-1.00);
  • English as an additional language (+0.80);
  • admissions (-0.30);
  • and the district’s schools themselves (-2.61), beyond what the model expects.

5 The disadvantaged gap, school by school

Figure 4: Each school’s value added for its disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils, mean over the years available (2021/22 to provisional 2025/26). Above zero means better than the national model expects for similar pupils.

No Crawley school is above expectation for its non-disadvantaged pupils while more than a point below it for its disadvantaged ones.

The table below gives each school’s own persistent effect, from the model with a school term, which is the steadier measure.

Table 1: Each school’s own persistent effect on the national model with a school term (%), for each group of pupils and for absence beyond what its intake predicts. Positive absence is worse.
School All pupils Disadvantaged Non-disadvantaged Absence (stage 1)
Ifield Community College -3.6 +1.7 -3.6 +2.4
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley -3.5 -8.9 -1.7 -11.7
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley -0.9 -0.4 +0.2 +19.8
Oriel High School -1.3 -3.2 -0.1 -4.3
Hazelwick School -0.3 -0.8 +1.3 -19.3
Thomas Bennett Community College -13.0 -9.2 -10.0 +15.5
The Gatwick School -8.4 -6.8 -7.6 +0.3
Table 2: Attainment 8 of each school’s disadvantaged pupils, year by year (2025/26 provisional), with the size of the group in 2024/25. Small groups make single years unreliable.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Disadvantaged pupils, 2024/25
The Gatwick School 28.8 25.3 33.0 28.2 34.1 26
Hazelwick School 41.1 35.9 39.5 38.2 34.8 62
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley 32.6 32.3 33.1 32.9 29.7 56
Ifield Community College 34.0 31.3 32.9 31.9 60
Oriel High School 39.5 35.3 34.3 27.2 30.5 30
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley 33.8 36.9 35.5 30.7 37.9 26
Thomas Bennett Community College 29.7 25.8 24.9 25.6 26.6 67

6 Is there a Crawley effect?

The district test of the East Sussex document adds a district level to the national model, with and without each school’s own record.

Table 3: The Crawley district effect, over and above West Sussex’s, with 95% intervals.
Specification Outcome Effect (%) 95% interval Significant
Published specification All pupils -5.2 -8.2 to -2.2 Yes
Published specification Disadvantaged -5.1 -8.6 to -1.5 Yes
Published specification Non-disadvantaged -5.8 -8.3 to -3.2 Yes
Published specification Absence (stage 1) -1.1 -7.5 to +5.7 No
With a school term All pupils -2.2 -5.3 to +1.0 No
With a school term Disadvantaged -1.8 -4.7 to +1.3 No
With a school term Non-disadvantaged -3.5 -6.6 to -0.4 Yes
With a school term Absence (stage 1) -0.1 -5.7 to +5.8 No

On the published model, Crawley differs from the rest of West Sussex for all pupils (-5.2%), disadvantaged pupils (-5.1%) and non-disadvantaged pupils (-5.8%). With each school’s own record in the model, the effect for non-disadvantaged pupils (-3.5%) remains. That is the nearest thing in the data to a genuine place effect: something all the district’s schools share.

Figure 5: Each school’s own persistent effect, from the model with a school term: Attainment 8 for all pupils, and absence beyond what its intake predicts.

7 Absence

Figure 6: Overall absence, autumn and spring terms, 2016/17 to 2025/26. Sessions-weighted; 2019/20 not collected.
  • 8.3% absence in autumn and spring 2025/26, against 8.0% for England and 8.1% for West Sussex. A year earlier it was 8.8%.
  • Persistent absence is 22.7%, against 21.6% for England.
  • Against its intake, the district’s schools run 0.01 points above what their pupils’ profiles predict, on average over 2021/22 to 2024/25.
Table 4: Each school’s absence against what its intake predicts, mean 2021/22 to 2024/25, and its reasons in the latest year (percentage of sessions).
School Absence % Predicted by intake % Above prediction Illness Unauthorised Reduced timetable Suspended
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley 10.5 8.7 +1.8 3.8 3.2 1.39 0.41
Thomas Bennett Community College 11.3 10.2 +1.1 4.4 2.3 0.52 0.73
Ifield Community College 9.6 9.7 -0.1 3.7 2.9 0.46 0.16
Oriel High School 7.9 8.0 -0.2 4.4 0.9 0.70 0.23
The Gatwick School 9.2 9.4 -0.2 3.2 2.7 0.76 0.07
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley 6.7 7.4 -0.7 3.2 1.0 0.28 0.05
Hazelwick School 6.6 8.2 -1.7 3.6 1.1 0.23 0.15
  • Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley and Thomas Bennett Community College each run more than a point above their predicted absence.
  • Hazelwick School runs more than a point below its prediction.

Reduced timetables account for 0.60% of sessions, against 0.29% in England, 2.1 times the national rate. Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley’s rate is the highest in the district.

Table 5: Predicted Attainment 8 gain if each school’s absence fell to the national school average (2024/25). Indicative only.
School District Absence % FSM % Gain, all pupils Gain, disadvantaged Gain from FSM to area average
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley Crawley 11.9 27.2 +3.0 +3.4 +0.3
Thomas Bennett Community College Crawley 11.6 38.1 +2.1 +2.4 +0.8
Ifield Community College Crawley 10.9 28.8 +2.0 +2.4 +0.4
The Gatwick School Crawley 9.2 23.2 +0.5 +0.6 +0.0
Oriel High School Crawley 8.8 12.5 +0.3 +0.2 +0.0

5 of the 7 schools are above the national average absence in 2024/25. Bringing them to it would add up to 3.0 points for all pupils, as an indication of scale.

Suspensions were 18.5 episodes per 100 pupils in 2024/25, against 21.2 for England and 16.2 for West Sussex. A rate per 100 pupils counts suspension episodes rather than pupils, and one pupil can be suspended several times in a year, so it is not a percentage of children: 7.0 pupils per 100 were suspended at least once, about 2.7 times each, against 7.3 per 100 and 2.9 times in England.

Table 6: Suspension episodes per 100 pupils, pupils suspended at least once per 100, and permanent exclusions, by school, latest year. One pupil can be suspended more than once, so the first rate runs well above the second.
School Pupils Episodes per 100 Pupils suspended per 100 Permanent exclusions
Thomas Bennett Community College 1262 60.8 13.7 7
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley 1359 22.1 8.8 0
Hazelwick School 1890 15.3 7.9 6
Ifield Community College 1204 12.2 6.1 6
The Gatwick School 846 7.8 4.4 1
Oriel High School 1478 5.8 4.0 2
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley 1174 3.8 2.6 2

8 Contextual league tables

Value added, all pupils: observed Attainment 8 minus the national model’s expectation. 2025/26 is provisional.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley -2.4 -1.5 -0.2 -0.6 -3.2 -1.6 5
Ifield Community College -4.2 -4.6 -0.3 +0.2 -2.2 4
Oriel High School -2.0 -2.8 -0.4 -3.7 -3.3 -2.4 5
Hazelwick School +0.3 -2.1 -2.7 -1.8 -7.1 -2.7 5
The Gatwick School -5.7 -7.7 -4.2 -1.0 +1.5 -3.4 5
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley -3.1 -2.3 -3.4 -7.9 -7.4 -4.8 5
Thomas Bennett Community College -4.9 -6.9 -6.6 -6.2 -4.1 -5.7 5
Value added, disadvantaged pupils. Small groups; read across years.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Ifield Community College -0.5 -1.4 +1.3 +1.7 +0.3 4
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley -3.6 -0.9 +0.5 +1.3 -3.8 -1.3 5
Hazelwick School +0.7 -3.7 -0.6 -1.5 -5.9 -2.2 5
The Gatwick School -4.1 -8.2 +0.9 -3.1 +0.8 -2.7 5
Oriel High School +0.5 -1.4 -0.7 -7.7 -4.8 -2.8 5
Thomas Bennett Community College -2.5 -4.4 -5.5 -4.7 -5.7 -4.6 5
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley -7.1 -3.2 -4.4 -9.2 -3.8 -5.5 5
Value added, non-disadvantaged pupils.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley -2.1 -1.7 -0.3 -1.0 -2.1 -1.4 5
Hazelwick School +0.5 -1.1 -2.6 -1.2 -6.8 -2.2 5
Oriel High School -2.0 -2.8 -0.4 -3.3 -3.2 -2.3 5
Ifield Community College -5.1 -5.4 -0.7 -0.1 -2.8 4
The Gatwick School -6.2 -7.3 -5.8 -0.8 +1.4 -3.7 5
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, Crawley -2.4 -1.9 -3.0 -7.8 -7.7 -4.6 5
Thomas Bennett Community College -5.1 -6.6 -5.7 -5.4 -3.1 -5.2 5

9 Questions for discussion

  1. Disadvantaged pupils. They average 30.7 in Crawley against 37.8 in England, and the district’s schools take 2.6 points for them beyond what the model expects. What does Ifield Community College, above expectation for these pupils, do that the district’s other schools could share?
  2. Attendance is not the district’s main lever. Absence makes almost no difference to its results against England, though Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley and Thomas Bennett Community College run more absence than their intakes predict.
  3. Something the district’s schools share. The effect for non-disadvantaged pupils (-3.5%) survives each school’s own record. What do all Crawley schools have in common that its neighbours do not?
  4. Practice. In Crawley, reduced timetables run at 2.1 times the national rate. These are choices made within schools, and neighbouring districts make them differently.
  5. The county. West Sussex’s own effect for disadvantaged pupils is -3.8% (131st of 151), distinguishable from zero, and it applies to every school here. The county questions in the West Sussex document apply here as well.

Notes on method

Methods and sources are those of the East Sussex document. District membership comes from each school’s postcode (ONS postcode directory, via postcodes.io). Absence and exclusions for the district are summed over its schools, including any predecessor or successor URNs. This document is generated from templates/district_report.qmd by R/20_district_reports.R, from data built by R/17_area_analysis.R, R/18_district_effects.R and R/19_trust_effects.R. Its format is described in AREA_REPORTS.md.