SchoolFacts.uk

The Farnley Academy

Secondary · Leeds · LS12 5EU

⇄ Compare with another school
Outstanding

Graded inspection under the pre-November 2025 system

This is an overall-effectiveness grade from the previous inspection framework. The school has not yet had a report-card inspection.

Quality of education: OutstandingBehaviour & attitudes: OutstandingPersonal development: OutstandingLeadership & management: OutstandingSafeguarding effective: Yes

Inspected 19 September 2023

Read the Ofsted report ↗

At a glance

1,492 pupils · 123% of 1,210 capacity (over capacity)

School type
Academy sponsor led
Age range
11–18
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Free school meals
35.3% of pupils
English as additional language
11.9% of pupils
SEN support
16.3% of pupils
EHC plan
0.8% of pupils
Sixth form
Yes
Website
www.farnley.leeds.sch.uk
URN
137577

Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026

1.07 first-choice applications per place

295 places offered · 317 first-choice applications · oversubscribed

First-choice applications per place, by entry year

19/20
20/21
21/22
22/23
23/24
24/25
25/26
26/27

Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE. A ratio above 1.00 means more families named this school first choice than there were places.

Admissions cutoff distance: Year 7

Last child offered a place under the distance criterion (2026 entry) lived within 1.704 miles

measured in a straight line.

Cutoff distance by entry year

24
25
26

Premium shows the exact distance behind every earlier year, and two more years of history back to 2015.

See what a pass includes →

Would you have got in? Check your postcode

One free check a month, no account needed: your postcode against this school's cutoff history. Premium adds unlimited checks, the nearby schools you would be inside, and the address check across every school at once.

Unlock with SchoolFacts Premium →

Cutoff distances as published by the local authority. Siblings and other priority groups are offered places first; cutoffs move year to year.

GCSE results (2024/2025)

293 pupils at the end of key stage 4 in 2024/2025

Attainment 8 score
49.1
England 46.1
Grade 4 or above in English & maths GCSEs
71.3%
England 64.8%
Grade 5 or above in English & maths GCSEs
50.9%
England 45.4%
EBacc average point score
4.5
England 4.1

Progress 8 is suspended nationally for 2024/25 and 2025/26. These cohorts sat no key stage 2 tests (COVID), so there is no baseline to measure progress from.

Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts.

Schools with a similar intake

Attainment 8, 2024/2025

This school49.1
Median of its 12 closest peers42.8
Leeds average46.4
England46.1

On attainment 8, this school is ahead of the schools that teach a comparable intake.

The twelve below are matched on intake alone, from every state school in England, so most are not local. They are the evidence behind the comparison above, not a shortlist. For schools you could realistically apply to, see nearby schools.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
Southmoor AcademySunderland · 77 miles awayGood49
Bruntcliffe AcademyLeeds · 3 miles awayGood46
Brockhill Park Performing Arts CollegeHythe · 218 miles awayExpected standard37.4
Northfleet School for GirlsGravesend · 182 miles awayExpected standard43
Pudsey Grammar SchoolPudsey · 2 miles awayGood44
Ratton SchoolEastbourne · 221 miles awayExpected standard43
Ark Alexandra AcademyHASTINGS · 221 miles awayStrong standard42.6
The McAuley Catholic High SchoolDoncaster · 30 miles awayGood42.5
Retford Oaks AcademyRetford · 42 miles awayGood40.1
Cornwallis AcademyMaidstone · 198 miles awayGood38.6
Kings Norton Girls' SchoolBirmingham · 95 miles awayOutstanding (2019)56.6
Springfield SchoolPortsmouth · 205 miles awayGood39.8

The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one: same phase and admissions type, and as near as the data allows on size, free school meals, English as an additional language, SEN and the child poverty of the surrounding area (IDACI 2025). 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 plain geography all matter and are not in the calculation. Results: DfE performance tables, 2024/2025. How the matching works.

Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)

Sessions missed (overall absence)
8.2%
England 6.5%
Pupils missing 10%+ of sessions (persistent absence)
21.6%
England 18.1%

Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.

Staffing

Pupils per qualified teacher
16.3
England 18.5

Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.

Teacher retention (2024/25)

91% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 4% moved to another state school · 5% left the state-funded sector

School Workforce Census, DfE. The ratio counts full-time-equivalent qualified teachers; retention follows teachers in post one November to the next. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Spending per pupil

This school£6,750
Typical secondary school£7,798

Total expenditure ÷ pupils, academy finance return (DfE Schools Financial Benchmarking, latest year). Higher spending is not a measure of quality. It often reflects greater pupil need or a smaller school. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Where pupils go after GCSEs

In sustained education, work or training
88%
Continuing in education
81%
Apprenticeship
3%
Employment
3%

Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.

Inspection history since 2015

Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.

The area around the school

Child poverty (IDACI)
8/10less deprived than most of England
Overall deprivation (IMD)
7/10less deprived than most of England

English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.

Census 2021This areaEngland
Adults with a degree or higher29.7%33.9%
Adults with no qualifications17%18.1%
In managerial or professional work38.6%33.2%
Households deprived in two or more ways14.6%18.1%
Residents in very good health48.8%48.5%
Homes owned by the occupier76.8%62.3%
Social housing11.1%17.1%
Privately rented11.8%20.5%
Detached houses53.3%22.9%
Flats8.1%22.2%
Homes with four or more bedrooms28.1%21.1%
Households with no car or van16%23.5%

Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01011738 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,234 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£197,500142 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
Typical range
£165,000–£265,000the middle half of sales
England median
£300,000all sales over the same period
Detached (38)£292,500
Semi-detached (44)£180,000
Terraced (57)£170,000

Homes around this school are cheaper than three quarters of school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.

Inside the Year 7 cutoff distance (2.74 km, 2026 entry): 1,578 sales, median £195,000. The homes that would have got a child in that year, at the straight-line distance the school last filled to.

Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Roads around the school

No collision was reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025.

Child pedestrian casualties
0an urban school averages 2.0
Collisions at school-run times
0an urban school averages 5.8
All reported collisions
0an urban school averages 30.6
Of those, serious or fatal
0an urban school averages 6.1

Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. 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, which is why the comparison is with other urban schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Nearby schools