Secondary school
Sources and method
This school
URN 148220 · LAESTAB 861/4046 · Source: Get Information about Schools, DfE, OGL v3.0 (record under Visit & links).
Against West Midlands and Stoke-on-Trent
Track: West Midlands's middle 80% (10th to 90th percentile); L = West Midlands median; S = Stoke-on-Trent median, shown when 10 or more of its schools have a figure; the dot is this school.
West Midlands state schools in Close Knit with a published figure, same phase (primary or secondary) and year; the borough median only when 10 or more of its schools have one. 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles with linear interpolation (PostgreSQL percentile_cont).
Colour only where lower or higher is clearly better (absence: lower): blue = better than the West Midlands median, red = in West Midlands's worst 10%.
Money: Compared only with academies' accounts (AAR), same academic year.
Results
England rank: Key stage 4: Attainment 8 average score. Ranked among 3,280 secondaries in England, 2024/25. England's state-funded mainstream schools with a published figure that year (suppressed or missing figures are left out); equal figures share a rank; top % = rank ÷ schools × 100, rounded up.
Top % in England by year: the first and best years are labelled; the dashed line is the middle (top 50%).
Against West Midlands: West Midlands state secondaries, same year, cohort 30+, suppressed figures left out. Steps: the score out of 10 against West Midlands (10 = top 10%).
Arrows: change in West Midlands percentile points since 2021/22.
Pupils counted: Attainment 8 199 pupils (2024/25) · Grade 5+ English and maths 199 pupils (2024/25) · EBacc point score 199 pupils (2024/25) · Progress 8 210 pupils (2023/24).
Progress 8: Not published for 2024/25: Progress 8 returns with 2026/27 results.
Getting in
Got in = first-choice families offered a place on national offer day ÷ families who put the school first. Putting a school first gives no priority: siblings and distance decide.
First-choice applications not offered a place on national offer day: 100 × (1 − first-preference offers ÷ first preferences). Applications count preferences, not children; places can still be offered from waiting lists after offer day.
Source: DfE, Primary and secondary school applications and offers.
Last distance offered: the straight line from the school to the furthest child offered a place under the distance rule. Not a catchment: it changes every year.
Inspections
Requires improvementInadequateReport cardUngraded visit, no grade
Dates are the day each inspection started: Jun 2026 Report card, lowest Needs attention · Feb 2026 Report card · Jul 2025 Ungraded visit · Jan 2025 Ungraded visit · Oct 2023 Inadequate · Jul 2019 Ungraded visit · Jun 2018 Requires improvement · Jul 2017 Ungraded visit. Each dot opens its Ofsted report. Report cards and 2024–25 inspections have no overall grade: the badge takes the lowest area's colour.
Report-card areas graded Exceptional or Strong standard, and Needs attention or Urgent improvement, out of the areas graded; Expected standard counts as neither. Counted from Ofsted's grades, never scored from the report text.
Source: Ofsted, state-funded schools inspections and outcomes.
Pupils
Full = pupils on roll ÷ the school's capacity (1,040 places), from Get Information about Schools.
Pupil profile and absence: DfE school census and pupil absence (Compare school and college performance). Free school meals = eligible at any time in the past 6 years; persistently absent = missed 10% or more of sessions. Withheld = suppressed by DfE.
Parent View
Survey period 10 Nov 2025 to 6 Apr 2026, as at 6 Apr 2026. Source: Ofsted Parent View management information, OGL v3.0 (dataset). The school's own survey page is under Visit & links.
Ofsted changed the survey on 10 Nov 2025. The card shows the newest survey with 10 or more responses; an earlier survey is labelled and never mixed with the current one.
Share of the parents who answered, from Ofsted's published percentages: agree = strongly agree + agree; yes/no and overall-view questions show the share answering Yes or Positive. Where a question does not apply to every parent (Not applicable, I have not raised any concerns), agree is the share of the parents it applies to: strongly agree + agree divided by 100% minus that answer; the card says how many it did not apply to. Don't know stays in. Ofsted publishes a school only with 10 or more submissions. The questions changed on 10 November 2025: the card shows the current survey when the school has one, else the earlier survey (one academic year of submissions, the latest with 10 or more), never both.
Workforce
School workforce census, 2025/26. Staff in FTE (full-time equivalent), rounded to 1 decimal on the card. As published: teachers 48.7, leadership 9, teaching assistants 9.5, support staff incl. TAs 29.07, whole workforce 77.77 (86 people), 51 teachers by headcount.
Other support = support staff incl. TAs minus teaching assistants.
Per adult counts teachers, TAs and other classroom support; excludes admin staff.
- DfE: FTE pupils (January census) ÷ FTE teachers (November census)
- DfE: FTE pupils ÷ FTE teachers, teaching assistants, other school support staff and technicians; administrative, auxiliary and business staff are not counted
- Teachers in leadership posts: head, deputy and assistant heads
Financials
Academy accounts (AAR) · September 2024 to August 2025.
Published total ÷ FTE pupils in the same return, to the nearest pound; income and spend per pupil are left out when the return covers less than 12 months.
CFR (maintained schools, April–March) and AAR (academies, September–August) are different accounts and years: do not compare a maintained school with an academy.
Destinations
Students who finished the stage in the cohort year, followed through the next year: sustained = at least six months in education, an apprenticeship or employment
Source: DfE destination measures.
All sources and licences (8)
- Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers
- Department for Education, Compare school and college performance
- Ofsted, state-funded schools inspections and outcomes
- Department for Education, Academies Accounts Return
- Department for Education, Key stage 4 destination measures, academic year
- Department for Education, School workforce in England, reporting year 2025
- Department for Education, Get Information about Schools
- Ofsted, Ofsted Parent View management information
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we compare schools · release rel-202610230107-census-layers-england
Birches Head Academy
Homes near this school
Finding homes near…
Results · 2024/25
Ranked 3,215 of 3,280 secondaries in England · top 99%
Against West MidlandsArrows: West Midlands rank change since 2021/22
Show exam results by year
No exams 2019/20–21
Getting in · 2026
By preference
| Choice | Applied | Offered |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 69 | 69 |
| 2nd | 46 | 11 |
| 3rd | 30 | 1 |
Last distance offered: London only
Visit & links
Open days aren't open data: the school site lists them.
Official
Guides
Links open in a new tab. Close Knit counts the click, never what you do there.
Inspections · 2017–2026
- InclusionNeeds attention
- AchievementNeeds attention
- Curriculum and teachingNeeds attention
- Attendance and behaviourNeeds attention
- Leadership and governanceNeeds attention
- Personal development and wellbeingNeeds attention
- SafeguardingMet
- 2017Ungraded visitas predecessor
- 2018Requires improvementas predecessor
- 2019Ungraded visitas predecessor
- 2023Inadequate
- 2025Ungraded visit
- 2025Ungraded visit
- 2026Report card
- 2026Lowest Needs attention
Pupils · 2024/25
Girls 47.3%Boys 52.7%
88.9% full · 1,040 places
Parent View
As at 6 Apr 2026 · 28 responses (2.9% of pupils)
Workforce · 2025/26
- Classroom teachers 39.7
- Leadership 9
- Teaching assistants 9.5
- Other support 19.6
Teachers 48.7 FTE · Whole workforce 77.8 · 86 people
Financials · 2024/25
- £0revenue reserve
- +£1,499,000in-year balance
Grants £9,596 · self-generated £67 · premises £1,089 per pupil
Multi-academy trust: FRANK FIELD EDUCATION TRUST (3 academies) · trust reserve £1,806,000 · Reserves in a multi-academy trust belong to the trust; this academy's figures include the share of central costs the trust gives it
Destinations · 2023/24 leavers
After Year 11
210 students, followed through 2024/25 · Provisional