Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy
Secondary · Chester le Street · DH3 2LP
Report-card inspection (current system, from November 2025)
The headline grade shown is the Achievement area of the school's report card.
Inspected 2 December 2025 · report published 17 February 2026
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
1,334 pupils · 89% of 1,496 capacity
- School type
- Academy converter
- Age range
- 11–18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 31.6% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 8.2% of pupils
- SEN support
- 14.2% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 1.6% of pupils
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Website
- http://lordlawson.academy/
- URN
- 137942
Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026
0.96 first-choice applications per place272 places offered · 260 first-choice applications · roughly balanced
First-choice applications per place, by entry year
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.
GCSE results (2024/2025)
237 pupils at the end of key stage 4 in 2024/2025
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.
A-level results (2024/2025)
Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts.
Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)
Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.
Staffing
Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.
Teacher retention (2024/25)
92% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 2% 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
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
Where students go after sixth form
Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.
Inspection history since 2015
- 2 December 2025: Expected standard
- 15 November 2022: Good
- 5 October 2021: Leaders and those responsible for governance are taking effective action in order for the school to become a good school
- 4 March 2021: Requires Improvement monitoring Visit 1
- 11 June 2019: Requires improvement
- 12 December 2017: S8 No Formal Designation Visit
- 8 February 2017: Requires improvement
Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.