SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Castleford, Wakefield

Airedale Academy

Crewe Road, Airedale, Castleford, West Yorkshire, WF10 3JU

Ofsted Requires improvement · 2024 Sixth form
School website 01977664555

Ofsted

Requires improvementas at 30 January 2024

Graded Requires improvement at its last graded inspection, on 30 January 2024.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 2 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

33.8 England 47

The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.

Grade 5+ in English & maths

25% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

44% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

2.8 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

5% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the bottom 10% of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is most disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the bottom quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.72confidence interval -0.95 to -0.50

Taking that range into account, pupils made less progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as well below average.

Progress 8 measures how far pupils moved between the end of primary and their GCSEs, which makes it far fairer than raw attainment. It is shown for 2023/24 because it could not be calculated for 2024/25: that year group would have sat their key stage 2 tests in summer 2020, when the tests were cancelled, so there is no starting point to measure from. Every school in England is affected, not just this one.

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1008
Places
1250
How full
81% full — 1008 of 1250 places taken
Girls / boys
539 / 469
Overall absence
15%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
42%

secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions

Free school meals, last 6 years
50%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
8%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
4%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
17%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
87%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
79%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
4%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
13%
No sustained destination
12%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
178

After sixth form

Went to university
31%

England 50%

In education, work or training
83%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
6%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
36

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

0% England 20.9%

The third of higher education providers whose entrants hold the highest average entry qualifications. It is the closest thing in the public data to "did they get into a competitive university", and it separates schools far more sharply than the headline progression rate does.

Went on to a degree
25%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
24

These follow an earlier group of leavers than the figures above, and count anyone reaching higher education within two years rather than the term after leaving, so they are not directly comparable with them.

A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year, and why the university figures track leavers from 2021/22. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.

The neighbourhood around the school

Census 2021 figures for Wakefield 003A, the statistical neighbourhood the school sits in — roughly 1,500 residents. It describes the area, not the pupils, who may travel in from further away.

Adults with a degree
25%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
20%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
95%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
1%

England 17%

Households with no car
10%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
44%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
CASTLEFORD ACADEMY TRUST
Headteacher
Principal: Andy Percival
Local authority
Wakefield
Ward
Airedale and Ferry Fryston
Constituency
Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley
URN
136613

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Castleford AcademyAcademy converter No grade 48.5 1.3 mi
The King's SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 49.9 2.5 mi
St Wilfrid's Catholic High School & Sixth Form College: A Voluntary AcademyAcademy converter No grade 46.7 2.6 mi
De Lacy AcademyAcademy converter Outstanding 2022 45.6 3.1 mi
Carleton High SchoolAcademy converter No grade 47.5 3.1 mi
The Featherstone AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2022 41.6 3.4 mi
Brigshaw High SchoolAcademy converter No grade 47.4 3.8 mi
Outwood Academy FreestonAcademy converter No grade 44.6 4.5 mi

Schools with a similar intake

State-funded secondary schools nationally whose share of disadvantaged pupils is closest to this school's. This is the fairest like-for-like comparison the published data supports.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
Central Foundation Boys' SchoolVoluntary aided school No grade 55.2
Ark Elvin AcademyAcademy sponsor led Outstanding 2023 45.9
Folkestone AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2022 33.7
Havelock AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 40.8
Castle View Enterprise AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 41.9
Bacon's CollegeAcademy sponsor led Good 2022 49.4
King Edward VI Handsworth Wood Girls' AcademyAcademy converter No grade 48
NCEA Duke's Secondary SchoolAcademy sponsor led Requires improvement 2023 32

Where these figures come from

  • School details, address and pupil numbers — Get Information About Schools, the DfE register, as at 14 August 2026.
  • Exam results — DfE performance tables, 2024/25, and 2023/24 for Progress 8.
  • Free school meals, EAL and SEN — school census, 2024/25.
  • Ofsted — Ofsted management information, latest inspections as at 30 June 2026.
  • Neighbourhood figures — ONS Census 2021, lower layer super output area.

All published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.