Penketh High School is a slightly larger than average-sized secondary school with an on-site sixth form. The school converted to academy status in April 2013, but retained the name ‘school’. Most students are from White British backgrounds and very few speak English as an additional language. The proportion of students eligible for the pupil premium funding, which is additional government funding for those students eligible for free school meals and those in the care of the local authority, is in line with the national average. The proportion of students who have special educational needs or disabilities is below the national average. The small number the school does support have significant needs and a new on-site unit, the Orchard Centre, is supporting a small number of students with specialist provision. There are a small number of students who attend alternative provision at a number of different sites including the New Horizon pupil referral unit. Since the school became an academy there have been significant changes in staffing and in leadership.  In 2014, the school met the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations of students’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics at the end of Year 11. The achievement in the sixth form did not meet the national interim standards in 2014.