Royal Docks Academy

About Royal Docks Academy

Royal Docks Academy sits in Newham, a London borough with 26 secondary schools, eight of which hold an Outstanding Ofsted rating. The school itself ranks 19th in the local authority on Progress 8, placing it in the bottom half of its peers. The top-performing schools nearby are Forest Gate Community School, Cumberland Community School, and Brampton Manor Academy — the last of which is also the nearest Outstanding-rated school, just 1.4 kilometres away. Headteacher Pinar Taze leads a mixed, non-faith secondary for pupils aged 11 to 16, with no sixth form on site. The school is significantly oversubscribed: for 164 places in 2025/26, it received 457 applications, with 98 first-preference offers. That works out to nearly three applicants for every spot, suggesting strong local demand despite the competitive field.

Academically, the school’s most recent published results from 2023/24 show a Progress 8 score of -0.41, which is below the national average and well behind the Newham local authority average of 0.13. The school’s Attainment 8 score sits at 40.4, and 41.7 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The EBacc average point score is 3.75, with 58.3 per cent of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2021, the school was rated Good overall, with Good marks for quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. This represents a clear improvement from its previous inspection in 2017, when it was rated Requires Improvement across both overall effectiveness and leadership and management.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a theatre, science labs, art studios, music rooms, an ICT suite, a library, and a sixth form centre — though there is no sixth form provision. Sports on offer include football, netball, rowing, hockey, martial arts, and rugby, while extracurricular clubs range from Debate and Chess to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Coding. SEND provision is extensive, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disabilities, and autistic spectrum disorder, with a resourced provision on site. With 55.4 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a high-needs community. It will suit families in Newham who want a Good-rated secondary with strong SEND support and a wide extracurricular offer, but who are realistic about its below-average academic outcomes compared with local peers.

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