SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in St Neots, Cambridgeshire

Longsands Academy

Longsands Road, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1LQ

Ofsted Good · 2024 Sixth form
School website 01480353535

Ofsted

Goodas at 13 February 2024

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 13 February 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

48.5 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

55% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

72% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.7 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

72% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the upper half of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is second least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the better-performing half.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.13confidence interval -0.04 to 0.30

Taking that range into account, progress was not statistically different from the national average. DfE bands this as 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.

A levels 2024/25

Average grade per entry
C+
Average points per entry
32.3

England average 32.3

A level students
95

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1412
Places
1838
How full
77% full — 1412 of 1838 places taken, so places are likely to be available
Girls / boys
719 / 693
Overall absence
10%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
22%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
23%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
10%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
2%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
11%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
92%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
86%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
4%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
43%
No sustained destination
6%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
272

After sixth form

Went to university
40%

England 50%

In education, work or training
86%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
5%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
186

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

17% 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
52%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
133

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 Huntingdonshire 019D, 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
26%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
19%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
67%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
19%

England 17%

Households with no car
16%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
36%

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
ASTREA ACADEMY TRUST
Headteacher
Headteacher: Umara Qureshi
Local authority
Cambridgeshire
Ward
St Neots Priory Park & Little Paxton
Constituency
St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire
URN
136992

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Ernulf AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 40.3 1.4 mi
Sandy Secondary SchoolFoundation school No grade 40.8 6.7 mi
Hinchingbrooke SchoolAcademy converter Good 2021 50.3 7 mi
Cambourne Village CollegeFree schools No grade 51.7 7.2 mi
Kimbolton SchoolOther independent school No grade 7.2 mi
St Peter's SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 39.6 7.9 mi
Mark Rutherford SchoolAcademy converter No grade 41.5 9.2 mi
St Ivo AcademyAcademy converter Good 2024 47.1 9.8 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
Sandy Secondary SchoolFoundation school No grade 40.8
Joseph Rowntree SchoolVoluntary controlled school Good 2022 48.2
Garforth AcademyAcademy converter No grade 53.1
Rainham School for GirlsAcademy converter Good 2022 44.3
The Corsham SchoolAcademy converter No grade 47.5
Bishop Fox's SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 46.9
Bury St Edmunds County High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 49.8
Lode Heath SchoolAcademy converter No grade 50.6

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.