Oswaldtwistle School
Oswaldtwistle School is a pupil referral unit in Accrington for boys and girls aged 11 to 16. It has 96 pupils, 6 more than it has places for. About 71 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England.
Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, Accrington, BB5 3DA01254 231553oswaldtwistle.orgMr Christopher Whittaker headteacherAll details
Ofsted
Ofsted hasn't published an inspection for this school yet.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
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 Lancashire council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (95), Autistic spectrum disorder (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 96 | 87 | 77 | 72 | 63 | 55 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 71% | 66% | 61% | 67% | 64% | 62% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 4% | 5% | 7% | 8% | 2% | 2% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 92% | 87% | 93% | 94% | 96% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 8% | 13% | 7% | 6% | 4% |
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
Where the 31 pupils who left in 2022/23 were a year later.
Among pupils from low-income families it was 26%, compared with 25% for everyone else.
Earlier years
| Destination | 2022/23 leavers | 2021/22 leavers | 2020/21 leavers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Still in education, work or training | 26% | 59% | 32% |
| Education | 23% | 56% | 26% |
| Apprenticeship | 3% | 0% | 5% |
| Work | 0% | 4% | 0% |
| Not in education, work or training | 45% | 30% | 47% |
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other primary 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 schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oswaldtwistle St Paul's Church of England Primary School | Church of England | 0 m | 142 | Report card 2026 | 37 | Compare |
| Rhyddings | Academy | 200 m | 610 | No overall grade 2025 | 5 | Compare |
| St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, Oswaldtwistle | Roman Catholic | 420 m | 252 | Good 2022 | 75 | Compare |
| Oswaldtwistle St Andrew's Church of England Primary School | Church of England | 540 m | 302 | Report card 2026 | 6 | Compare |
| Fairfield Nursery School | Local authority nursery school | 660 m | 58 | Good 2023 | – | Compare |
| Oswaldtwistle Hippings Methodist Voluntary Controlled Primary School | Methodist | 800 m | 205 | Good 2023 | 65 | Compare |
| Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School, Church | Roman Catholic | 810 m | 199 | No overall grade 2025 | 6 | Compare |
| Oswaldtwistle Moor End Primary School | Council | 850 m | 205 | Good 2023 | 40 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Oswaldtwistle School a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score Oswaldtwistle School yet.
How many pupils does Oswaldtwistle School have?
96 pupils aged 11 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 90 places, so it is 107% full.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, Accrington, BB5 3DA
- Telephone
- 01254 231553
- Website
- www.oswaldtwistle.org
- Headteacher
- Mr Christopher Whittaker
- Type of school
- Pupil referral unit (Pupil referral unit, local authority maintained schools)
- Phase
- Pupil referral unit / alternative provision, ages 11-16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Local authority
- Lancashire
- Ward
- St Andrew's
- Constituency
- Hyndburn
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 April 2003 (new provision)
- URN
- 134127 · LAESTAB 8881113 · UKPRN 10017294
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.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- 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.