Malbank School and Sixth Form College
Malbank School and Sixth Form College is a converter academy in Nantwich for boys and girls aged 11 to 18. It has 1,289 pupils and room for 1,384. About 24 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, about the same as most schools in England. Ofsted's last grade was good, back in 2022.
Welsh Row, Nantwich, CW5 5HD01270 611009malbank.comMr John Harrison headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 14 June 2022, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Good overall.
This inspection is more than 4 years old. When Ofsted next visits, the school will get a report card instead of one grade.
Results
GCSE results, summer 2025
200 pupils sat their GCSEs. Here is how they did against every state secondary in England. These are the results of Malbank School and Sixth Form College, the school this one replaced.
All GCSE measures, year by year
| Measure | 2025† | 2024† | 2023† | 2022† | 2019† | 2018† | Cheshire East | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of Year 11 | 200 | 197 | 186 | 186 | 185 | 177 | – | – |
| Average GCSE scoreAttainment 8 | 42.9 | 41.0 | 44.5 | 45.5 | 45.2 | 45.6 | 45.2 | 46.8 |
| Progress from age 11Progress 8 | – | -0.60 | -0.21 | -0.27 | -0.14 | -0.29 | – | – |
| Strong pass in English and mathsGrade 5+ in English and maths | 32% | 31% | 32% | 40% | 43% | 45% | 41% | 46% |
| Standard pass in English and mathsGrade 4+ in English and maths | 59% | 63% | 66% | 67% | 65% | 62% | 65% | 66% |
| Core subjects scoreEBacc average point score | 3.69 | 3.61 | 3.63 | 3.82 | 3.70 | 3.85 | 3.91 | 4.15 |
| Taking the core subjectsEBacc entry | 45% | 60% | 19% | 24% | 19% | 27% | 36% | 41% |
| Average GCSE score: low-income pupilsAttainment 8, disadvantaged | 35.1 | 30.9 | 35.3 | 35.4 | 33.0 | 31.3 | – | – |
| Average GCSE score: other pupilsAttainment 8, non-disadvantaged | 45.8 | 43.5 | 46.8 | 48.1 | 47.7 | 49.0 | – | – |
| Average GCSE score: pupils who started behindAttainment 8, low prior attainers | – | 28.3 | 27.7 | 30.4 | 20.3 | 23.9 | – | – |
| Average GCSE score: pupils who started aheadAttainment 8, high prior attainers | – | 56.3 | 61.0 | 65.5 | 58.2 | 58.2 | – | – |
† These results are for Malbank School and Sixth Form College, the school this one replaced in January 2026. Same building and the same children. It got a new registration number, usually because it joined an academy trust.
Does every child do well here?
A good school does well by every child, not just on average. Each row compares two groups of pupils here. The grey marks show the same two groups across England. 1 of the 3 gaps is smaller than the gap across England. When a group has fewer than about ten pupils, its figures jump around a lot from year to year.
At GCSE, 2025
Low-income means the child has had free school meals at some point in the last six years. A group's figure isn't published when it has fewer than six pupils.
Getting a place
Open to all. There is no entrance test.
Cheshire East council has drawn an official catchment area for this school. You can see it on the map below; it covers about 65 square kilometres. Living inside it moves your child up the queue when there are more applicants than places. It doesn't guarantee a place: the council's admissions rules decide the order.
Set your home postcode at the top of the page to see whether you live inside it.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Cheshire East council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
What a home inside the catchment costs
Every home sold inside the council's catchment area, of any type, from HM Land Registry records. If homes here cost more than the district average, that is the price people pay to live close enough to get in.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (140), emotional and mental health (86), Specific learning difficulty (24), Other difficulty or disability (4), Physical disability (3), Autistic spectrum disorder (2).
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 90.0% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 91.4%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25† | 2023/24† | 2022/23† | 2021/22† | 2020/21† | 2018/19† | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 10.0% | 10.2% | 10.1% | 9.6% | 5.3% | 6.2% | 8.6% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 7.2% | 6.6% | 6.3% | 7.1% | 3.8% | 4.0% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 2.8% | 3.6% | 3.8% | 2.5% | 1.5% | 2.2% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 25.5% | 30.3% | 30.6% | 29.9% | 13.3% | 14.1% | 23.9% |
† These attendance figures are for Malbank School and Sixth Form College, the school this one replaced in January 2026. Same building and the same children. It got a new registration number, usually because it joined an academy trust.
Money
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other secondary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest secondary schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brine Leas School | Academy | 1.2 miles | 1,417 | Good 2022 | 59 | Compare |
| Shavington Academy | Academy | 3.2 miles | 934 | Good 2023 | 59 | Compare |
| St Thomas More Catholic High School | Academy | 3.3 miles | 642 | No overall grade 2024 | 71 | Compare |
| The Oaks Academy | Academy | 3.6 miles | 681 | Good 2024 | 25 | Compare |
| Ruskin Community High School | Council | 3.9 miles | 713 | Good 2024 | 34 | Compare |
| Crewe Engineering and Design UTC | University technical college | 4.4 miles | 299 | No overall grade 2024 | 8 | Compare |
| Cheshire Studio School | Studio schools | 4.4 miles | 0 | Good 2023 | 12 | Compare |
| Sir William Stanier School | Academy | 4.9 miles | 633 | Report card 2026 | 2 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Malbank School and Sixth Form College a good school?
Malbank School and Sixth Form College doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted rated it good at its last inspection in June 2022.
What is Malbank School and Sixth Form College's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Malbank School and Sixth Form College good at its last full inspection on 14 June 2022. That was more than four years ago. When Ofsted next visits, the school will get a report card instead of a single grade.
How good are Malbank School and Sixth Form College's GCSE results?
In summer 2025, 32% of pupils got a grade 5 or better in both English and maths. Across England it was 46%. Its Attainment 8 score, which is the average grade across a pupil's best eight subjects times ten, was 42.9, against 46.8 for England. In each subject, pupils here finished most of a grade behind children across England who started secondary school at the same level.
How many pupils does Malbank School and Sixth Form College have?
1,289 pupils aged 11 to 18 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 1,384 places, so it is 93% full.
What is attendance like at Malbank School and Sixth Form College?
Pupils were in school 90.0% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 91.4%. 26% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Malbank School and Sixth Form College?
The average class had 21.4 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 22.8. 4% of classes had more than 30 pupils.
Does Malbank School and Sixth Form College have a sixth form?
Yes.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Welsh Row, Nantwich, CW5 5HD
- Telephone
- 01270 611009
- Website
- www.malbank.com
- Headteacher
- Mr John Harrison
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Secondary school, ages 11-18, with sixth form
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Multi-academy trust
- The Cornovii Trust (8 schools)
- Local authority
- Cheshire East
- Ward
- Nantwich North and West
- Constituency
- Crewe and Nantwich
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 January 2026 (academy converter)
- URN
- 152168 · LAESTAB 8954143 · UKPRN 10099623
- Formerly
- Malbank School and Sixth Form College
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- GCSE results: DfE key stage 4 performance tables, 2024/25 final.
- Attendance: DfE pupil absence in schools in England, 2024/25 full year.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Class sizes: DfE schools, pupils and their characteristics, January 2026.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- Catchment area: Cheshire East council open data (Open Government Licence), reprojected to WGS84.
- House prices: HM Land Registry price paid data, December 2023 to December 2025, placed by postcode.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.