SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Plymouth

Plympton Academy

Moorland Road, Plympton, Plymouth, Devon, PL7 2RS

Ofsted Requires improvement · 2024 Sixth form
School website 03333602220

Ofsted

Requires improvementas at 19 March 2024

Graded Requires improvement at its last graded inspection, on 19 March 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

43.1 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

44% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

67% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

3.6 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

12% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the lower 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 bottom quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.39confidence interval -0.59 to -0.19

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

A levels 2024/25

Average grade per entry
C
Average points per entry
28.4

England average 32.3

A level students
42

Pupils

Pupils on roll
984
Places
1350
How full
73% full — 984 of 1350 places taken, so places are likely to be available
Girls / boys
482 / 502
Overall absence
11%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
28%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
22%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
2%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
3%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
7%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
92%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
78%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
10%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
37%
No sustained destination
6%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
175

After sixth form

Went to university
38%

England 50%

In education, work or training
88%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
18%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
68

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

3% 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
73%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
40

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 Plymouth 015C, 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
22%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
74%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
5%

England 17%

Households with no car
20%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
52%

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
THE THINKING SCHOOLS ACADEMY TRUST
Headteacher
Principal: Shaun Willis
Local authority
Plymouth
Ward
Plympton St Mary
Constituency
South West Devon
URN
136556

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Hele's SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 50.7 0.7 mi
Plymstock SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 47.3 2.4 mi
Coombe Dean SchoolAcademy converter No grade 49.2 2.6 mi
Tor Bridge HighAcademy converter Good 2021 40.4 2.7 mi
Lipson Co-operative AcademyAcademy converter No grade 43.5 3 mi
Eggbuckland Community CollegeAcademy converter Requires improvement 2024 42.3 3.3 mi
Plymouth High School for GirlsAcademy converter Good 2024 65.5 3.8 mi
Plymouth CollegeOther independent school No grade 3.8 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
The Cotswold AcademyAcademy converter No grade 53
Guru Nanak Sikh AcademyAcademy converter Good 2023 49.9
Ossett Academy and Sixth Form CollegeAcademy converter No grade 51
Penrice AcademyAcademy converter No grade 50.9
Shelley College, A Share AcademyAcademy converter No grade 51.3
Sacred Heart High SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 60.9
XP SchoolFree schools Good 2023 39.8
St Paul's Catholic School, a Voluntary AcademyAcademy converter Good 2023 54.5

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.