Charles Read Academy

About Charles Read Academy

Charles Read Academy is a school that local families clearly want to get into. For the 2025/26 intake, the school received 125 applications for just 52 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.4. Of those, 46 were first-preference applications, and 44 first-preference offers were made, meaning the vast majority of families who put it top of their list were successful. The school is a mixed, non-denominational state secondary for pupils aged 11 to 16, with no sixth form. It has a capacity of 275 and currently has 267 pupils on roll, so it is running very close to full. A relatively high proportion of its students — 42.3 per cent — are eligible for free school meals, which is a significant indicator of the community it serves. The headteacher is Kerry Milligan, and the school sits in the South Kesteven borough of Lincolnshire.

Academically, Charles Read Academy is performing well above the national average. Its Progress 8 score for the 2023/24 academic year is 0.58, which the Department for Education bands as 'Well above average'. That is a strong result, particularly when compared with the Lincolnshire local authority average Progress 8 score of -0.06. The school ranks 4th out of 8 schools in South Kesteven and 19th out of 273 schools in the East Midlands region on this measure. Nationally, it sits in the top 13 per cent of schools. The Attainment 8 score is 42.5, and 58.8 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The EBacc average point score is 3.68, though only 13.7 per cent of pupils entered the full EBacc suite of subjects. In its most recent graded Ofsted inspection in 2017, the school was rated Good overall, with Good for leadership and management. A subsequent ungraded inspection in 2022 confirmed the school remains Good. This is a notable improvement from its previous 2015 inspection, when it was rated Requires Improvement.

The school offers a solid range of facilities, including science labs, a theatre, a swimming pool, tennis courts, an astro turf pitch, art studios, and a chapel. Sports on offer include athletics, football, rugby, netball, dance, badminton, martial arts, cricket, and swimming. There is also a decent selection of clubs, from drama and chess to Young Enterprise, science club, coding, and orchestra. For families with children who have additional needs, the school lists provisions for a wide range of SEND categories, including specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. Given its strong Progress 8 outcomes, relatively high FSM percentage, and oversubscribed status, this school seems to be a popular and effective choice for families in the Grantham area who want a non-selective state secondary that is clearly adding significant academic value.

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