The Elms Academy

About The Elms Academy

The Elms Academy sits in Lambeth, a London borough where it has carved out a distinctive position among state secondaries. Ranked first out of 15 schools of its type in the local authority, it sits ahead of Oasis Academy South Bank, Bishop Thomas Grant Catholic Secondary School and Woodmansterne School, the next three highest-ranked peers. Its Progress 8 score of 0.91 places it in the top five per cent of schools nationally and in the top 11 per cent across London. The school is Christian in character and led by headteacher Amy Welch. With 836 pupils against a capacity of 875, it is popular enough to be oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, it received 456 applications for 130 places, with 126 first-preference applications resulting in 91 offers. That works out at 3.51 applications per place, a clear sign of its standing among local families.

Academically, the school’s most recent Ofsted inspection in 2025 rated it Good across all five categories, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. This marks a significant improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2020, when it was rated Requires Improvement overall. At Key Stage 4, the Progress 8 score of 0.91 is well above the Lambeth average of 0.07, and the Attainment 8 score sits at 53.7. Over 76 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in English and maths, and 61 per cent entered the English Baccalaureate. In the sixth form, the school’s value-added score is 0.05, classed as average, with students achieving an average grade of B across their best three A-levels and 40 points per entry.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including science labs, a swimming pool, tennis courts, a chapel and a sixth-form centre. Sports provision covers football, rugby, cricket, athletics and badminton, while clubs range from Film Club and Young Enterprise to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Model UN and a school orchestra. SEND support is well established, with provisions for specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent feedback from the 2024/25 period is strong: 87 per cent would recommend the school, and 85 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their child is happy. The school suits families who value strong academic progress, a Christian ethos and a wide extracurricular offer, particularly those looking for a secondary with a sixth form that performs solidly above the local average.

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