Rutlish School, London
Rutlish School is a secondary school for boys aged 11 to 19 in London. It was rated Outstanding at its last graded Ofsted inspection, in April 2017. Ofsted's ungraded inspection in September 2024 did not change this grade. Its 2026 GCSE results were the 68th-highest of the 266 schools in London with published results, and 428th of 3,298 across England. It was 93% full in 2025.
- GCSE results
- Above England average
- Ofsted
- Outstanding (2017)
- Demand
- Oversubscribed
- Attendance
- Better than England average
- Progress (2024)
- Well above average
Year 7 applications for September 2027 close in 4 days
Deadline Saturday 31 October 2026. Apply to Merton (the council where you live). Offers on 1 March.
Data last updated 27 Oct 2026
Rutlish School in detail
Results
In 2026, pupils at Rutlish School averaged an Attainment 8 score of 56.1, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 53.6 in Merton and 47 across England.
64% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 57% in Merton and 47% in England.
That is down from 60.5 in 2025.
Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was 0.68: pupils made well above average progress compared with pupils nationally who started secondary school at the same level. Progress 8 was not published for 2026.
Disadvantaged pupils averaged an Attainment 8 of 47.9, against 58.4 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 10.5 points.
Pupils sat GCSEs in 29 subjects; after English and maths, the most popular were Religious Studies, Combined Science and Geography.
Getting a place at Rutlish School
For September 2026 entry, 195 families put Rutlish School as their first choice and 757 named it as one of their preferences, for 260 places offered. It had fewer first-choice applications than places. 28 families who put it first were not offered a place there.
Compared with nearby schools
The nearest other state secondary schools to Rutlish School are Ursuline High School Wimbledon (0.8 miles, Attainment 8 63.2); TCES National Online School (0.8 miles); Wimbledon College (1 mile, Good, Attainment 8 56); and Harris Academy Wimbledon (1 mile, Outstanding, Attainment 8 55.8).
Rutlish School's 2026 results were higher than 2 of these 3 schools.
Ursuline High School WimbledonTCES National Online SchoolWimbledon CollegeHarris Academy Wimbledon
What parents say
167 parents answered Ofsted's Parent View survey about Rutlish School (as of September 2025): 92% would recommend the school, 93% say their child is happy there and 82% of those with a view say bullying is dealt with well.
The strongest agreement was that their child feels safe (94%); the weakest, that the school deals with bullying well (among parents with a view) (82%).
Where pupils go next
Of the 229 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 93% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 26% to a further education college and 1% to an apprenticeship.
Of the 134 students who left the sixth form in 2023/24, 71% went on to university or other higher education, 3% to apprenticeships and 5% into work. 20% went to one of the most selective third of universities.
Who goes there
50.6% speak English as an additional language, against 18.8% on average, according to the 2026 school census.
The largest ethnic groups are White British (32%), Asian (25%) and Mixed (14%).
Rutlish School has a resourced provision for speech, language and communication needs: 10 places, 10 pupils on roll.
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Wimbledon Chase Station, about 440 metres away (roughly a 6-minute walk).
8 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Mostyn Road (->n), 210 metres away.
The area around the school
Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Rutlish School stands in is among the 20% least deprived neighbourhoods in England. This describes where the school is, not where its pupils live.
Suspensions and exclusions
In 2024/25, Rutlish School issued 75 suspensions, 5 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and no permanent exclusions.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to Rutlish School are Merton Park Primary School (0.3 miles), Joseph Hood Primary School (0.3 miles), Wimbledon Chase Primary School (0.4 miles) and Poplar Primary School (0.5 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.
Merton Park Primary SchoolJoseph Hood Primary SchoolWimbledon Chase Primary SchoolPoplar Primary School
Sources: DfE school performance data (averages: state mainstream schools); DfE school-level applications and offers; council admissions booklets; DfE appeals statistics; Ofsted Parent View; DfE destination measures; DfE school census and special educational needs statistics; NaPTAN (Department for Transport); English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG); data.police.uk street-level crime; DfE exclusions statistics
Location
Merton published that the last place for 2026 entry went to a family 2,867 metres away (straight line). The cut-off moves every year.
Key Information
DfE GIASOfsted Rating
Ofsted · 2 years agoThis judgement is from April 2017, 9 years ago, longer than Ofsted's usual 4-year cycle: the school may have changed since.
Overall
Quality of Education
Behaviour & Attitudes
Personal Development
Leadership & Management
Sixth Form
Ofsted's report, in its own words
What is it like to attend this school?
Leaders have created a welcoming and aspirational culture. The focus on both academic rigour and personal development enables pupils to excel. The school has extremely high expectations for pupils. This ensures all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), receive an exceptional education and achieve very highly.
Behaviour in the school is exemplary. Pupils demonstrate great enthusiasm towards their education. They are friendly, polite and kind. Pupils are proud of their school community. They are very well supported through strong working relationships with staff. This ensures pupils are safe in school.
What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?
The schools' curricular thinking is highly developed and ambitious. Subject leaders have designed the curriculum to build pupils' knowledge progressively over time. This helps pupils to learn and remember new concepts quickly. Leaders' curricular thinking embeds subject-specific vocabulary, which pupils routinely use confidently. The school identify and meet the needs of pupils with SEND highly effectively. Staff receive extensive training and use a range of strategies to ensure pupils with SEND achieve exceptionally well.
Teachers have strong subject knowledge and present information clearly. They check for pupils' understanding systematically and address any misconceptions quickly. This supports pupils to produce work of extremely high quality. The school has developed precise systems to ensure any pupil who is falling behind in a subject is identified quickly and provided with appropriate support. Pupils routinely perform extremely well in national examinations, including in the sixth form. Students in the sixth form achieve exceptionally well. The strategies that the school has put in place mean students studying vocational qualifications in the sixth form are now producing work of a similar exemplary standard to students studying A level qualifications.
From Ofsted's September 2024 ungraded inspection report: the opening paragraphs of each section, quoted word for word. Read the full report Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Ofsted Insights
Ofsted rated this school Outstanding at its April 2017 inspection - up from Good.
Rated Outstanding for
Leadership & management.
About
Rutlish School is a state comprehensive school for boys, formerly a grammar school with the same name originally located on Rutlish Road, Merton Park, and relocated in 1957 on nearby Watery Lane, Merton Park, in southwest London.
From Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
At a Glance
23.6%
Free School Meals
No
Boarding
No
Nursery
Yes
Sixth Form
Resourced provision: Speech and language
SEN Provision
No
Special Measures
What Parents Think
167 responsesSource: Ofsted Parent View, responses as at September 2025 - % who strongly agree or agree
Secondary Performance (GCSE)
Academic year 2025/26GCSE Results
2025/26 academic year
Progress 8 has declined from 0.91 to 0.68 (2023 to 2024). Attainment 8 has declined from 58.8 to 56.1 (2023 to 2026). GCSE English & Maths 5+ has remained stable at around 64% (2023 to 2026).
Performance by Group
| Group | Progress 8 | Attainment 8 | Eng+Maths 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| All pupils | - | 56.1 | 63.8% |
| Disadvantaged(51) | - | 47.9 | 45.1% |
| Not known to be disadvantaged(178) | - | 58.4 | 69.1% |
| Boys(229) | - | 56.1 | 63.8% |
Show more breakdowns (2)
| Known or believed to be other than English(103) | - | 54.2 | 60.2% |
| Non mobile(224) | - | 56.6 | 65.2% |
2025/26 academic year - DfE performance tables data
GCSE Subjects Offered
+ 9 more subjects
2025/26 academic year - entries by number of pupils
After GCSEs - Leaver Destinations
After GCSEs (Year 11) - 229 students
2023/24 data
Exclusions & Suspensions
0
Permanent exclusions
0.00%
Exclusion rate
75
Suspensions
5.03%
Suspension rate
49 pupils received one or more suspensions out of 1,491 pupils
2024/25 academic year
How Does This School Compare?
Ranked against 5 nearby secondary schools
Keep up with Rutlish School
Term dates
Rutlish School is a voluntary controlled school, so its term dates are set by Merton. Training (INSET) days, when pupils are not in school, vary by school: check the school's own calendar.
2026 to 2027
- Autumn term: Wednesday 2 September to Friday 18 December 2026 (half term Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026)
- Spring term: Monday 4 January to Thursday 25 March 2027 (half term Monday 15 February to Friday 19 February 2027)
- Summer term: Monday 12 April to Thursday 22 July 2027 (half term Monday 31 May to Friday 4 June 2027)
2027 to 2028
- Autumn term: Wednesday 1 September to Friday 17 December 2027 (half term Monday 25 October to Friday 29 October 2027)
- Spring term: Tuesday 4 January to Friday 31 March 2028 (half term Monday 14 February to Friday 18 February 2028)
- Summer term: Tuesday 18 April to Friday 21 July 2028 (half term Monday 29 May to Friday 2 June 2028)
Getting There
Train Stations
Tube / Metro / Tram
Bus Stops
Free school transport
Check free transport to Rutlish School from your postcode →
You apply to the council where you live. Rutlish School is in Merton; for families living there:
Apply to Merton for free school transport. Its policy is on the council's website.
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 36
- Fatal
- 0
- Serious
- 7
- Children hurt
- 1
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 36 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 7 serious and 29 slight.
1 child aged 0 to 15 was hurt: 1 on foot.
6 of the collisions happened on a weekday between 08:00 and 09:30 or 14:45 and 16:30, holidays included.
The typical figure for schools in Merton is 48.5 (the median across 74 schools, same distance and years).
Serious and slight counts use the Department for Transport's severity adjustment, which allows for changes in how police forces record injuries; they are estimates, rounded to whole numbers. Distances are in a straight line. Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19), Open Government Licence v3.0.
Commute and house prices
Your chances of a place at Rutlish School
Will you get a place at Rutlish School? Get the admissions report
Your home postcode, set against Rutlish School's admissions figures, in one report saved to your account.
What the report includes for Rutlish School:
- The straight-line distance from your home to Rutlish School.
- Last distance offered for 2019 to 2026 entry, from Merton's own figures, and how your distance compares each year.
- Applications, first choices and offers at Rutlish School for 2014 to 2026 entry.
- How many families in Merton got their first choice, and how often appeals there succeed.
- The nearest state schools to your home, with Ofsted rating, demand and last distance offered where published.
- Key dates for September 2027 entry and how to apply.
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Capacity & Demand
School Occupancy
93%
Near capacity
1,482 pupils
1,587 places
105 spare places in 2025
2025, DfE school capacity data
Area Demand Pressure - London
Based on MHCLG Live Table 122 (2024-25, last 5 years) for London
Across Merton council
Places available
1,874
Applications
1,982
Got 1st preference
67.4%
Got preferred school
95.4%
All secondary applications across Merton council (2026/27), not just this school.
This school: Oversubscribed
Inspection History(8)
Ungraded inspection: The school remains Outstanding, but Ofsted raised concerns; its next inspection will be a full graded one.
SEND & SEN Provision
SEN Overview
253
SEN Support
63
EHC Plans
21.5%
of Total Pupils
2026 academic year
Provision & Specialist Facilities
Rutlish School has a resourced provision for speech, language and communication needs: 10 places, 10 pupils on roll.
Source: GIAS, Department for Education.
Pupils by Need Type
Pupil Demographics
Ethnicity
2026 academic year
Key Indicators
1,471
Total Pupils
1,471
Boys
0
Girls
2026 academic year
Workforce
94
Teachers
15.6:1
Pupil-teacher ratio
£64,793
Mean salary
2026 data
School Funding
£8,024
Per pupil
£10080k
Total funding
£299k
Pupil premium
2025-26 financial year allocations
Pupil Absence2024/25
6.0%
Overall absence
16.5%
Persistent absence
1,213
Enrolments
Absence trend
Source: DfE pupil absence statistics. Persistent absence = pupils missing 10%+ sessions.
Feeder Primary Schools
Primary schools that likely feed into this school, based on proximity
Rutlish School
Showing 10 of 14 linked schools
Questions parents ask about Rutlish School
What are GCSE results like at Rutlish School?
In the 2026 results, pupils at Rutlish School achieved an Attainment 8 score of 56.1. 64% passed GCSE English and maths at grade 5 or above.
What is Rutlish School's Ofsted rating?
Rutlish School's most recent Ofsted inspection, in September 2024, was ungraded, so it gave no overall grade. At its last graded inspection, in April 2017, it was rated Outstanding.
How close to Rutlish School do you need to live?
Merton publishes how far the last offered place was, in metres: 2585 for 2023 entry, then 2391 for 2024 entry, then 2240 for 2025 entry, then 2867 for 2026 entry. The cut-off has loosened over that period, so places have been reaching further out. These are the authority's own figures, not a fixed boundary - the cut-off moves with the number of applications each year.
Is it hard to get a place at Rutlish School?
Rutlish School was not full in 2025: it ran at 93% of its 1587 places.
How big are the classes at Rutlish School?
Classes at Rutlish School average 18.3 pupils (2025/26).
How many pupils go to Rutlish School?
Rutlish School has around 1471 pupils on roll. 24% are eligible for free school meals.
Does Rutlish School have specialist SEN provision?
Rutlish School has a resourced provision for speech, language and communication needs: 10 places, 10 pupils on roll.
What is attendance like at Rutlish School?
6% of sessions were missed at Rutlish School in 2024/25. 16.5% of pupils were persistently absent (missing 10% or more of sessions).
How do I apply to Rutlish School?
Apply through Merton's coordinated admissions process, naming Rutlish School on your application. Applications for Year 7 places starting in September 2027 close on Saturday 31 October 2026, and offers are made on Monday 1 March 2027.
What are Rutlish School's term dates?
Rutlish School is a voluntary controlled school, so its term dates are set by Merton. In 2026 to 2027: Autumn term: Wednesday 2 September to Friday 18 December 2026 (half term Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October 2026); Spring term: Monday 4 January to Thursday 25 March 2027 (half term Monday 15 February to Friday 19 February 2027); Summer term: Monday 12 April to Thursday 22 July 2027 (half term Monday 31 May to Friday 4 June 2027). In 2027 to 2028: Autumn term: Wednesday 1 September to Friday 17 December 2027 (half term Monday 25 October to Friday 29 October 2027); Spring term: Tuesday 4 January to Friday 31 March 2028 (half term Monday 14 February to Friday 18 February 2028); Summer term: Tuesday 18 April to Friday 21 July 2028 (half term Monday 29 May to Friday 2 June 2028).
How many road collisions happen near Rutlish School?
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 36 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: none fatal, 7 serious and 29 slight. 1 child aged 0 to 15 was hurt: 1 on foot. 6 of the collisions happened on a weekday between 08:00 and 09:30 or 14:45 and 16:30, holidays included. The typical figure for schools in Merton is 48.5 (the median across 74 schools, same distance and years).
Where is Rutlish School?
Rutlish School is at Watery Lane, Merton Park, London, SW20 9AD.
Sources: Merton admissions booklets; Merton term dates; Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)