SF School Facts UK

Secondary school in Plymouth

UTC Plymouth

Park Avenue, Plymouth, PL1 4RL

Ofsted Good · 2023 Sixth form
School website 01752284250
Ofsted Good January 2023
Attainment 8 36.4 in the bottom 10% nationally
Chance of a place 97% of first choices offered
Local deprivation 1/10 more deprived

Ofsted

Goodas at 17 January 2023

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 17 January 2023.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 3 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
Good
Last overall grade in this dataset
Good
Days since inspection
1,354 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

36.4 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

33% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

55% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

2.8 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

0% 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 lower half.

Progress 8 2023/24

-1.13confidence interval -1.48 to -0.78

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.

Getting a place 2026/27 entry

Slightly oversubscribed. Of the 115 families who named this school as their first choice, 97% were offered a place.

Places offered
115

for entry into Year 7

Named it first choice
115
First choices per place
1.00

England average 1.00

First choices offered a place
97%

England 88.5%

First preferences per place are down 15% on three years ago.

These are offers made on national offer day for 2026/27 entry, from the local authority's co-ordinated admissions round. They exclude later movement — waiting lists, appeals and in-year admissions — so a school shown as oversubscribed may still have places by September.

Oversubscription measures popularity, not quality, and the two are not the same thing: a school can be heavily oversubscribed because of its intake, its faith designation or simply because the nearest alternative is further away. We do not publish catchment maps, because catchments are not published: each admissions authority applies its own criteria afresh every year, and the distance that got a child in last year is not a boundary. Read the school's own admissions arrangements for the rules that will actually apply.

Pupils

Pupils on roll
594
Places
750
How full
79% full — 594 of 750 places taken, so places are likely to be available
Girls / boys
180 / 414
Overall absence
15%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
40%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
44%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
9%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
4%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
16%

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
2

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
24

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
2

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
27

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Devonport Rail Station

0.4 km away — railway station

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
82%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
59%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
17%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
19%
No sustained destination
13%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
88

After sixth form

Went to university
18%

England 50%

In education, work or training
76%

England 84.4%

Started an apprenticeship
42%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
33

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
13%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
15

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

1/10 Deprivation decile

Among the most deprived fifth of England.

2/10 Child poverty decile

Among the most 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
£161,500

postcode sector PL1 4 · 224 sales

Typical range
£120,625 to £249,500

middle half of sales

Semi-detached
£172,000
Terraced
£225,000
Flat
£142,250

Homes around this school are cheaper 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
22%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
25%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
7%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
30%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
44%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
21%

England 62.7%

Social housing
40%

England 17%

Privately rented
38%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
7%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
7%

England 22.5%

No car
42%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for Plymouth 026B 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 11–19
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: Joanna Ware
Opened as this establishment
1 October 2018
Register status
Open
Local authority
Plymouth
Ward
Devonport
Constituency
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport
URN
146560

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.

Admissions history

The official school-level admissions releases contain up to 13 national-offer-day observations, from 2014/15 to 2026/27. The chart shows first choices per place; the table keeps the underlying counts.

Year 7

1.80 2020/21: 0.62 first choices per place2021/22: 0.90 first choices per place2022/23: 1.67 first choices per place2023/24: 1.18 first choices per place2024/25: 1.48 first choices per place2025/26: 1.29 first choices per place2026/27: 1.00 first choices per place2020202220242026
All 7 annual observations
Entry yearPlacesFirst choicesPer placeFirst choices offered
2020/21 85 53 0.62 100%
2021/22 126 114 0.90 99%
2022/23 116 194 1.67 57%
2023/24 116 137 1.18 83%
2024/25 116 172 1.48 64%
2025/26 112 145 1.29 75%
2026/27 115 115 1.00 97%

These are annual observations, not forecasts. They exclude waiting lists, appeals and in-year admissions. Each series follows this exact URN only, so academy conversions and missing releases remain visible as gaps rather than being joined by name.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8DistanceCompare
Devonport High School for BoysAcademy converter Good 2023 69.3 0.300.09 to 0.51 0.7 mi
Stoke Damerel Community CollegeAcademy converter Report card 2026 35.9 -0.19-0.38 to 0.01 · not a win 0.8 mi
Scott Medical and Healthcare CollegeStudio schools No overall grade 43.5 0.760.40 to 1.11 0.8 mi
Millbay AcademyFree schools Good 2024 36.9 -0.51-0.84 to -0.17 1.2 mi
Torpoint Community CollegeFoundation school Good 2022 41 -0.47-0.71 to -0.23 1.3 mi
Devonport High School for GirlsAcademy converter No overall grade 73.8 0.780.52 to 1.03 1.5 mi
Plymouth High School for GirlsAcademy converter Good 2024 65.5 0.24-0.03 to 0.50 · not a win 1.7 mi
Plymouth CollegeOther independent school No overall grade — — 1.8 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 36.4
Median of its 12 closest peers 37.7
Plymouth average 43.8
England average 47

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

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
Aldercar High SchoolAcademy converter Nottingham Report card 2026 33.9 -0.39-0.65 to -0.13
Orchards AcademyAcademy converter Swanley No overall grade 41.3 0.03-0.25 to 0.30 · not a win
Wyvern AcademyAcademy sponsor led Darlington Good 2023 37.7 -0.52-0.83 to -0.21
The Hyndburn AcademyAcademy sponsor led Blackburn Report card 2026 37.4 -0.78-1.07 to -0.48
Sir John Hunt Community Sports CollegeFoundation school Plymouth Good 2022 39.8 -0.10-0.34 to 0.15 · not a win
Atherton High SchoolFree schools Atherton Good 2024 39.3 0.00-0.32 to 0.31 · not a win
Staffordshire University AcademyAcademy sponsor led Cannock Good 2023 32.9 -0.74-1.01 to -0.47
Farringdon Community AcademyAcademy converter Sunderland Report card 2026 44.6 -0.04-0.28 to 0.20 · not a win
Oak AcademyAcademy converter Bournemouth No overall grade 32.5 -0.63-0.95 to -0.30
Sutton Community AcademyAcademy sponsor led Sutton-in-Ashfield Report card 2026 37.6 -0.45-0.68 to -0.22
Dixons Pennine AcademyAcademy converter Stalybridge Good 2024 35.8 -0.90-1.16 to -0.65
The Cornerstone AcademyAcademy sponsor led Poole Good 2022 41 -0.03-0.30 to 0.24 · not a win

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 146560; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 17 January 2023
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
Progress 8DfE performance tables2023/24Exact URN; confidence interval retained
AdmissionsDfE school applications and offers2026/27 plus history to 2014/15Exact URN and entry point; national offer day
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?

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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?

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