The Hathaway Academy

About The Hathaway Academy

The Hathaway Academy in Thurrock is a mixed secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 16, and it is currently educating more students than its official capacity suggests. With 608 pupils on roll against a capacity of 560, the school is clearly in demand locally. That demand is reflected in its admissions data for the 2025/26 academic year: the school received 303 applications for just 108 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.81. Only 57 of those offers went to first-preference applicants, meaning competition for places is stiff. The school serves a community with a relatively high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, at 28.6 per cent. That figure is significantly above the national average for secondary schools, which typically sits around 23 per cent, and suggests the school draws from an area with above-average levels of disadvantage. The school has no religious character and no sixth form, so pupils leave at 16.

Academically, the school’s most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2024 graded it as Good overall, with leadership and management also rated Good. This is a notable improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2015, when it was rated Requires Improvement. In the 2023/24 exam results, the school’s Progress 8 score was -0.38, which is below the national average and places it in the ‘Below average’ banding. Within Thurrock, that ranks it 9th out of 10 secondary schools, and in the bottom 50 per cent nationally. Its Attainment 8 score was 40.1, and 53.9 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths. The school’s EBacc entry rate was 62.8 per cent, but only 13.9 per cent of pupils achieved the EBacc at a grade 5 or above. By comparison, the local authority average Progress 8 score is 0.14, so the school is performing below the Thurrock average.

The school offers a solid range of facilities, including a theatre, astro turf, swimming pool, tennis courts, and a sports hall, with sports on offer including rugby, gymnastics, cricket, netball, football, basketball, and swimming. There is also a wide selection of clubs, from DofE and Young Enterprise to coding, art, science, gardening, chess, and eco club. For pupils with additional needs, the school provides support for a range of SEND categories, including specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language difficulties, hearing impairment, and autistic spectrum disorder. Given its oversubscription and below-average Progress 8, this school may suit families who value a broad extracurricular offer and a supportive SEND framework, but who are also aware that academic outcomes are not the strongest in the area. The nearest outstanding-rated school is Harris Academy Chafford Hundred, 2.6 km away.

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