Woodham Academy

About Woodham Academy

Woodham Academy in County Durham has turned a corner academically, with its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023 confirming a Good rating — a clear improvement from its previous Requires Improvement grade in 2016. The school’s Progress 8 score of 0.09 is the most telling metric here: it means pupils achieve slightly better than the national average, and well above the County Durham local authority average of -0.21. That places Woodham 13th out of 31 secondary schools in the area, putting it comfortably in the top half. The Attainment 8 score of 46.4 gives a snapshot of overall GCSE performance, while 66.1% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in English and maths — the basics measure. The school also sees 54.1% of its cohort entering the English Baccalaureate, with 34.4% achieving that benchmark at grade 4 or above.

Digging deeper into the exam data, Woodham’s Progress 8 banding is rated as Average, which is a solid outcome for a school where 37.4% of pupils are eligible for free school meals — well above the national average. The school performs particularly well in the open element of Progress 8 (0.22), which covers non-EBacc subjects, suggesting strong provision in creative and vocational options. English and EBacc subjects both come in at 0.07, while maths (-0.11) and the core EBacc element (-0.12) are slightly below the national average. Nationally, Woodham ranks 1,323 out of 3,141 schools on Progress 8, placing it in the 42nd percentile. In the North East region, it sits 39th out of 142 schools. The school has no sixth form, so all 1,027 pupils are in Years 7 to 11, and the school is close to its capacity of 1,100.

Woodham is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, it received 339 applications for 213 places, with 226 first-preference applications and all 213 offers going to first-preference families — a ratio of 1.59 applicants per place. The school offers a broad range of facilities including science labs, music rooms, a sports hall, tennis courts, and a library. Sports provision is extensive, with hockey, rugby, football, netball, swimming, athletics, and martial arts all on offer, alongside clubs like chess, gardening, drama, and debate. SEND support is well-developed, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language needs, autistic spectrum disorder, and physical disabilities. This is a school that suits families looking for a large, inclusive secondary with improving academic outcomes and strong extracurricular breadth, particularly in sport and the arts.

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