Oldbury Academy

About Oldbury Academy

Oldbury Academy's headline Progress 8 score of -0.09 sits above the Sandwell local authority average of -0.14, placing it in the top half of secondary schools in the borough. That might not sound like a huge gap, but in a local authority where the typical school is pulling pupils backwards relative to the national average, Oldbury is essentially treading water — and that's a meaningful achievement. It ranks 8th out of 19 Sandwell secondaries on this measure, putting it in the 42nd percentile locally and the 55th percentile nationally. The school is also comfortably above the LA average for Attainment 8, with a score of 40.8 compared to a local context where many schools struggle to hit 35. The basics benchmark — the proportion of pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in English and maths — sits at 35.9%, which is a solid result for a school where over half of pupils are eligible for free school meals.

The school's most recent Ofsted inspection in December 2021 awarded a Good rating across every category: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. That's a clear improvement from its previous inspection in 2017, when it was rated Requires Improvement overall, with leadership and management also marked as Requires Improvement. The Progress 8 banding is officially classed as 'Average', which aligns with the inspection judgement — this is a school that has stabilised and is now delivering consistent, if not exceptional, outcomes. The Ebacc entry rate is 48.5%, and the Ebacc average point score is 3.64, which is reasonable for a non-selective school in this context. There's no sixth form, so pupils leave at 16, and the school's focus is squarely on getting them through to that point with solid foundations.

Oldbury Academy is a large school, with 1,341 pupils on roll against a capacity of 1,550, and it's clearly popular — for the 2025/26 admissions cycle, it received 332 applications for 121 places, with 72 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.74. The facilities are strong for a state school: a sports hall, gymnasium, astro turf, tennis courts, a theatre, science labs, and a chapel. There's a wide range of clubs including DofE, choir, orchestra, chess, and eco club, plus sports like rowing and martial arts alongside the more traditional football and rugby. SEND provision is comprehensive, covering specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disabilities, and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that suits families looking for a large, inclusive, improving secondary in Sandwell with strong pastoral and extracurricular breadth, particularly if they value a school that outperforms the local average despite high levels of disadvantage.

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