Nunthorpe Academy

About Nunthorpe Academy

Nunthorpe Academy sits within the Redcar and Cleveland local authority, a secondary school serving 1,410 pupils aged 11 to 18. Among the nine state secondary schools in the area ranked by Progress 8, it places sixth, placing it in the lower half locally. The top-performing peers in the authority are St Peter's Catholic College, Freebrough Academy, and Rye Hills Academy, all of which recorded stronger Progress 8 scores. Nunthorpe's own Progress 8 score of -0.44 sits below the local authority average of -0.23, and its national percentile ranking of around 80th places it in the bottom 50 of schools across England. The school is non-denominational and mixed, with a headteacher, Peter Wood, leading a large institution that operates at 84% of its 1,675 capacity. Its most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2024 judged the school as Requires Improvement overall, a downgrade from its previous Good rating in 2019.

Academically, the school's results for the 2023/24 academic year show a mixed picture. At Key Stage 4, the Attainment 8 score sits at 45.8, while the basics measure for a grade 4 or above in English and maths reaches 68.8%, dropping to 45.4% for a grade 5 or above. The EBacc entry rate is 59.6%, with 33% of pupils achieving a grade 4 or above across the EBacc subjects. Progress 8 breakdowns reveal particular weakness in maths and EBacc subjects, with scores of -0.61 and -0.79 respectively, though English progress is close to the national average at 0.08. At Key Stage 5, the sixth form was rated Good in the 2024 inspection, but the value-added score of -0.35 is classed as below average, with a points per entry of 32.55 equating to a C+ grade. Only 13% of A-level entries achieved an AAB or higher, and the best three A-levels averaged a C+.

The school is oversubscribed for 2025/26, with 459 applications for 241 places and 179 first-preference offers, giving a ratio of 1.9 applicants per place. Facilities include a swimming pool, tennis courts, sports hall, art studios, a sixth form centre, and an ICT suite. Sports on offer range from rugby and football to cross country and cricket, while clubs cover science, art, coding, debate, and a newspaper. SEND provisions are broad, supporting pupils with specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language challenges, hearing impairment, multi-sensory impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a large, non-selective school with a strong sixth form and a wide range of extracurricular activities, but one where academic outcomes currently lag behind local averages, making it a choice for families who value breadth of opportunity over top-tier results.

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