Venerable Bede Church of England Academy
Secondary · Sunderland · SR2 0SX
Earlier grade, confirmed by a later ungraded inspection
Ofsted's most recent (ungraded) visit confirmed the school remains Good. Ungraded inspections do not award a new grade.
Inspected 5 November 2021
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
738 pupils · 82% of 900 capacity
- School type
- Academy converter
- Age range
- 11–16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- Church of England
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 34.3% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 2.1% of pupils
- SEN support
- 14.5% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 1.4% of pupils
- URN
- 139184
Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026
0.89 first-choice applications per place64 places offered · 57 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)
178 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.
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)
82% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 10% moved to another state school · 8% 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
Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.
Inspection history since 2015
- 11 March 2026: 9
- 21 January 2025: S5 Inspection
- 4 November 2021: School remains Good
- 24 May 2016: Good
Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.