Boldon School

About Boldon School

Boldon School is a mixed state secondary in South Tyneside for pupils aged 11 to 16, and it sits at the bottom of the local authority's performance table for Progress 8. Among the nine secondary schools in the borough, it ranks eighth, with a Progress 8 score of -0.59. The top-performing peers in the area are Whitburn Church of England Academy (scoring -0.11), Jarrow School (-0.16), and St Wilfrid's RC College (-0.27), all of which achieve results closer to the national average. The school is led by headteacher Louise Pippin and has a capacity of 1,100, with 1,064 pupils currently on roll. A significant proportion of its intake — 52 per cent — is eligible for free school meals, well above the national average. The school was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 academic year, receiving 266 applications for 218 places, with 138 first-preference offers made. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, in February 2025, judged the school as Requires Improvement overall, a downgrade from its previous Good rating in 2019.

Academically, the school's results are below the local and national averages. Its Attainment 8 score stands at 40.4, and the proportion of pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in English and maths is 36.6 per cent, with 54 per cent achieving grade 4 or above. The EBacc average point score is 3.4, and only 10.4 per cent of pupils entered the EBacc and achieved a grade 5 or above. The school's Progress 8 score of -0.59 is well below average nationally, and notably lower than the South Tyneside local authority average of -0.35. Within the North East region, it ranks 115th out of 142 schools. The Ofsted breakdown from the 2025 inspection rated the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management all as Requires Improvement, while personal development was judged Good. The previous 2019 inspection had rated all areas as Good, with personal development marked as Outstanding.

The school offers a range of facilities including an ICT suite, library, gymnasium, art studios, and a sixth form centre, though it does not have a sixth form of its own. Sports on offer include cricket, tennis, hockey, swimming, rugby, athletics, dance, and rounders, while clubs cover drama, choir, coding, book club, Duke of Edinburgh, orchestra, Young Enterprise, newspaper, and debate. The school has a broad range of SEND provisions, supporting pupils with specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment, multi-sensory impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent View responses, collected between September 2024 and September 2025 from 86 respondents, show that 69 per cent would recommend the school. However, responses to specific questions were mixed: 42 per cent agreed their child is happy, 47 per cent agreed their child feels safe, and only 27 per cent strongly agreed that concerns are dealt with properly. This school may suit families who value a broad extracurricular offer and strong SEND support, but who are aware of the current challenges around behaviour and academic outcomes.

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