Marine Academy Plymouth

About Marine Academy Plymouth

Marine Academy Plymouth was rated Good across every category in its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024, a significant turnaround from its previous Inadequate rating in 2017. The school now holds Good marks for overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. However, the headline exam metric tells a more nuanced story: the school’s Progress 8 score is -0.35, which is below the national average and places it in the ‘Below average’ banding. This means that, on average, pupils achieve about a third of a grade less per subject than students with similar starting points nationally. In the local authority of Plymouth, where the average Progress 8 score is -0.04, Marine Academy ranks 15th out of 18 secondary schools. It sits in the bottom 50% nationally, at the 74th percentile among 3,141 schools.

Looking deeper at the 2023/24 GCSE results, the school’s Attainment 8 score sits at 42.1, and 57% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in both English and maths, dropping to 39.1% at grade 5 or above. The English Baccalaureate average point score is 3.75, with 60.2% of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects. In the sixth form, 28 students took A-levels, achieving an average grade of C per entry and a points-per-entry score of 31.23. The value-added score is -0.11, which is rated as ‘Average’ progress, and 20% of entries were graded AAB or higher. The school’s Progress 8 breakdown shows negative scores across all subject groups, with the weakest in maths (-0.42) and the strongest in English (-0.26), though still below zero.

Marine Academy Plymouth is a mixed, non-denominational secondary school with a sixth form, serving 975 pupils aged 11 to 18. It is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26, there were 234 applications for 166 places, with 139 first-preference offers made. The school has a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 44.2%, well above the national average. Facilities are strong, including science labs, a swimming pool, a theatre, a sixth form centre, and extensive sports provision with hockey, rugby, cricket, and tennis. The school offers a wide range of clubs from choir and orchestra to Model UN and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. SEND support covers eight areas, including autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language needs, and social, emotional and mental health. This is a school that has made clear progress in leadership and behaviour, but whose academic outcomes remain below local and national averages, making it best suited to families who value the broader offer and recent improvements over headline results.

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