Copley Academy

About Copley Academy

Copley Academy is a secondary school in Tameside that currently serves 574 pupils, well below its capacity of 790, and it is oversubscribed: for 98 places in the 2025/26 intake, the school received 235 applications, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.4. Of those, 66 were first-preference offers. This level of demand suggests that local families are actively choosing the school despite its recent history. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2024, the school was rated Good across all five categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and overall effectiveness. That is a notable improvement from its previous inspection in November 2021, when it was rated Requires Improvement overall, with behaviour and attitudes also at that lower grade. The headteacher is Ruth Craven.

Academically, the school’s Progress 8 score for the 2023/24 academic year is -0.9, which is well below average nationally and places it 15th out of 16 schools in Tameside, in the bottom 50% of schools nationally. The local authority average Progress 8 score is -0.19, so Copley’s result is significantly lower than its peers. The Attainment 8 score is 32.7, and just 12.5% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSEs. The EBacc entry rate is 17.5%, and only 0.8% of pupils achieved the EBacc at grade 5 or above. In the North West region, the school ranks 407th out of 445 schools. These figures indicate that while the school has improved its Ofsted rating, academic outcomes remain a challenge, particularly in maths and English, where Progress 8 scores are -1.06 and -0.96 respectively.

The school offers a wide range of facilities including a swimming pool, theatre, art studios, astro turf, and a sports hall, plus clubs such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Young Enterprise, coding, and eco club. Sports on offer include martial arts, dance, hockey, and gymnastics. For pupils with additional needs, the school lists provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. There is no sixth form, so pupils must plan for post-16 options elsewhere. Copley Academy will suit families who value the improved behaviour and leadership environment noted by Ofsted, and who are comfortable with a school that is still working to raise academic attainment against a challenging local backdrop.

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