Arts and Media School Islington

About Arts and Media School Islington

Arts and Media School Islington sits in the London borough of Islington, where it ranks sixth out of nine secondary schools by Progress 8 score. That puts it behind the three top-performing peers in the local authority: Central Foundation Boys' School, St Aloysius' College, and Highbury Fields School. The school is a mixed, non-denominational state secondary for pupils aged 11 to 16, with no sixth form. It has a capacity of 780 but currently houses 595 pupils, so there is some room to grow. The most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in 2023, rated the school Good across every category: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. That is the same overall rating it received in its previous inspection in 2017, so the school has held a steady Good rating over time. Headteacher Susan Service leads a school where a high proportion of pupils — 61.6 per cent — are eligible for free school meals, well above the national average.

Academically, Arts and Media School Islington performs solidly against a challenging baseline. Its Progress 8 score of 0.17 means pupils make slightly more progress than the national average, though this is below the Islington local authority average of 0.28. The school's Attainment 8 score is 45, and 66.9 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths, dropping to 49.2 per cent at grade 5 or above. The English Baccalaureate entry rate is 30.6 per cent, with 22.6 per cent achieving the EBacc at grade 4 or above. Breaking down Progress 8 by subject, the strongest performance is in maths, where the score is 0.47, followed by English at 0.33. The EBacc element is slightly negative at -0.04, and the open element sits at 0.05. Nationally, the school ranks 1,137th out of 3,141 schools on Progress 8, placing it in the top 50 per cent of schools in the country.

The school offers a practical range of facilities including a swimming pool, theatre, playing fields, ICT suite, gymnasium, and library. Sports on offer include netball, rowing, rugby, badminton, rounders, and gymnastics, while clubs cover drama, science club, Young Enterprise, Model UN, and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. For families with children who have special educational needs, the school provides support for a broad spectrum of needs: specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulty or disability. Admissions for 2025/26 show the school is oversubscribed, with 268 applications for 117 places and 74 first-preference offers. The oversubscription ratio is 2.29, so families should be aware that securing a place is competitive. This is a school that suits families looking for a Good-rated, inclusive secondary with strong maths and English progress, a wide range of extracurricular activities, and a clear focus on the arts and media specialism.

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