SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Towcester, West Northamptonshire

Silverstone UTC

Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TL

Ofsted Requires improvement · 2023 Sixth form
School website 01327855010
Ofsted Requires improvement November 2023
Attainment 8 31.1 in the bottom 10% nationally
Pupils 463 84% full
Local deprivation 10/10 less deprived

Ofsted

Requires improvementas at 28 November 2023

Graded Requires improvement at its last graded inspection, on 28 November 2023.

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

Current published outcome
Requires improvement
Last overall grade in this dataset
Requires improvement
Days since inspection
1,039 days
Framework era
Historic overall-grade framework (ended September 2024)

These four fields describe the latest published inspection on this record. The dataset does not keep a previous inspection row, so a school inspected under the current framework will usually have no overall grade to show as “prior”.

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

31.1 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

15% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

39% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

1.9 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

1% 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 second least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the bottom quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

-1.28confidence interval -1.55 to -1.00

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

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
D
Average points per entry
19.6

England average 32.3

A level students
57

Pupils

Pupils on roll
463
Places
550
How full
84% full — 463 of 550 places taken
Girls / boys
89 / 374
Overall absence
13%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
36%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
19%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
5%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
2%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
12%

England 15%

School funding 2025-26 financial year

Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release.

Evidence found
Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release; this is not represented as £0.
Source coverage
DfE mainstream-school allocations for running costs for pupils aged 5-16, importer snapshot 23 August 2026.
What this means
The official mainstream allocation release does not provide a publishable row for this establishment.
What this does not mean
The school received no public funding or has no budget; other establishment types and funding streams use different publications.

Allocation is not expenditure. DfE says this release combines the schools block with several other revenue grants and excludes capital spending. Funding is shown for context and is never used in School Facts ordering, peer groups or quality claims. Source, licence and coverage.

Roads and getting there

Road casualties within 500m

Child pedestrian casualties
0

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
2

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
1

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
3

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Not published

No station within 5km

Every collision reported to the police within 500m of the school over the five years to 2024, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe — counts rise with traffic and with how built up an area is, and a rural school on a fast road may have fewer collisions but a worse one. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position.

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
95%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
80%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
11%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
35%
No sustained destination
3%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
111

After sixth form

Went to university
28%

England 50%

In education, work or training
88%

England 84.4%

Started an apprenticeship
20%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
114

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
32%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
102

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 area around the school

10/10 Deprivation decile

Among the least deprived fifth of England.

10/10 Child poverty decile

Among the least deprived fifth of England for children in low-income families.

Indices of Deprivation 2019, for the small area the school stands in. 1 means the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. The second measure counts only children living in low-income families, which is the one that describes the intake a school is likely to draw on.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£415,000

postcode sector NN12 8 · 331 sales

Typical range
£305,000 to £585,500

middle half of sales

Detached
£560,000
Semi-detached
£322,000
Terraced
£275,000

Homes around this school are dearer than most of England.

Every residential sale registered in this postcode sector since January 2024, from HM Land Registry. A sector covers roughly 2,500 addresses. England's median over the same period was £293,000.

Who lives there

Adults with a degree
37%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
12%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
20%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
8%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
54%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
74%

England 62.7%

Social housing
12%

England 17%

Privately rented
10%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
54%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
46%

England 22.5%

No car
4%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for West Northamptonshire 049B and the wider neighbourhood around it. These figures describe the area, not the pupils — children may travel in from much further away, and for selective, faith and independent schools they usually do.

School details

Type
University technical college
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 14–19
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
The Silverstone Academy Trust
Headteacher
Headteacher: Angela Murphy
Opened as this establishment
2 September 2013
Register status
Open
Local authority
West Northamptonshire
Ward
Rural South Northamptonshire
Constituency
South Northamptonshire
URN
139690

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Official DfE record
Open the register entry

The source record for this establishment and URN.

The URN identifies this registered establishment. If a school converts or is replaced, DfE may issue a new URN; this page does not stitch different establishments together by a similar name.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8DistanceCompare
Stowe SchoolOther independent school No overall grade — — 3 mi
Akeley Wood Senior SchoolOther independent school No overall grade — — 3.2 mi
Sponne SchoolAcademy converter No overall grade 52 0.270.09 to 0.46 4.2 mi
Buckingham SchoolCommunity school Good 2023 38.6 -0.30-0.50 to -0.10 5.8 mi
Royal Latin SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 73.5 0.590.36 to 0.81 5.8 mi
Thornton CollegeOther independent school No overall grade — — 6.2 mi
Magdalen College SchoolAcademy converter No overall grade 44.2 -0.25-0.43 to -0.07 6.3 mi
Elizabeth Woodville SchoolAcademy converter No overall grade 44.9 -0.02-0.23 to 0.19 · not a win 7.6 mi

Schools like this

The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one — same phase and sector, and as near as the data allows on size, disadvantage, SEN, English as an additional language and the deprivation of the surrounding area. These are the schools it can fairly be judged against.

This school 31.1
Median of its 5 closest peers 47.2
West Northamptonshire average 38.4
England average 47

Attainment 8 score. This school is behind the schools that teach a comparable intake.

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
Allenbourn Middle SchoolAcademy converter Wimborne No overall grade — —
Emmanuel Church of England Middle SchoolAcademy sponsor led Verwood Good 2022 — —
Winchcombe SchoolAcademy converter Cheltenham Report card 2026 42.8 -0.01-0.30 to 0.28 · not a win
Broadstone Middle SchoolAcademy sponsor led Broadstone No overall grade — —
Aston Fields Middle SchoolCommunity school Bromsgrove No overall grade — —
Chetwynde SchoolFree schools Barrow-in-Furness Good 2023 44.2 -0.39-0.76 to -0.01
Woodland Middle School AcademyAcademy converter Bedford Good 2023 — —
Cartmel Priory CofE SchoolAcademy converter Grange-over-Sands Report card 2026 47.2 -0.08-0.41 to 0.25 · not a win
Henley In Arden SchoolAcademy converter Henley-in-Arden Good 2022 50.4 0.310.07 to 0.55
Holywell SchoolAcademy converter Bedford Good 2023 — —
Lady Lumley's AcademyAcademy sponsor led Pickering Good 2024 52.7 0.300.08 to 0.53
Brewood Middle CofE AcademyAcademy sponsor led Stafford Good 2024 — —

Matching uses only characteristics a school does not choose. It is not a ranking, and a close match on intake does not make two schools interchangeable — sixth form, faith character, admissions rules and simple geography all matter and are not in the calculation.

Evidence ledger

Reference dates and join methods are kept separate because the figures do not all describe the same year or geography.

EvidencePublisherReference dateHow it reaches this page
School identityGet Information About Schools23 August 2026Exact URN 139690; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 28 November 2023
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
Progress 8DfE performance tables2023/24Exact URN; confidence interval retained
Pupil intakeDfE school census2024/25Exact URN; suppressed values remain missing
Funding allocationDfE school funding statistics2025-26 financial yearNo row for this URN in the mainstream-school release; not represented as zero
Roads and transportDfT road casualties, traffic and NaPTANFive-year road window; access-node snapshotCoordinate join within the stated radius
NeighbourhoodONS Census2021LSOA/MSOA containing the school, not pupil homes
DeprivationEnglish Indices of Deprivation2019LSOA containing the school
Home pricesHM Land Registry Price Paid DataSales since January 2024School postcode sector, not a catchment

These sources are published for reuse under the Open Government Licence v3.0, including the Crown database-right notice that accompanies Price Paid Data. Definitions and source notes. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.

Questions this school record can answer

Which exact school is this?

Match the DfE URN, school name and address; names and structures can change while the URN remains the stable identifier.

What does the latest inspection evidence say?

Use the inspection date and framework shown. Do not compare a legacy overall grade directly with the newer report-card judgements.

How should I compare nearby schools?

Compare the same phase, cohort and academic year, then keep intake context and confidence intervals beside performance measures.

What must a parent verify?

Check current admissions rules, travel practicality, support for the child’s needs and the school’s latest official information before deciding.