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Waterside Academy

Secondary · London · E8 4DL

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Strong standard

Report-card inspection (current system, from November 2025)

The headline grade shown is the Achievement area of the school's report card.

Safeguarding: MetCurriculum & teaching: Strong standardAchievement: Strong standardAttendance & behaviour: Strong standardPersonal development: Strong standardInclusion: Strong standardLeadership & governance: Strong standardEarly years: Not applicablePost-16: Not applicable

Inspected 27 January 2026 · report published 14 May 2026

Read the Ofsted report ↗

At a glance

351 pupils · 70% of 500 capacity

School type
Free schools
Age range
11–16
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Free school meals
65.7% of pupils
English as additional language
39.6% of pupils
SEN support
6.2% of pupils
EHC plan
5.9% of pupils
Website
https://www.watersidecst.org
URN
147653

Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026

0.39 first-choice applications per place

46 places offered · 18 first-choice applications · usually has places

First-choice applications per place, by entry year

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

Every applicant was offered a place for 2026 entry, so distance was not needed to decide places.

How safe is a place here? Check your postcode

One free check a month, no account needed. No cutoff distance applied in 2026, so there is no boundary for your address to be inside of. The check shows how far you live from the school and how many rounds running it has placed every applicant. Premium adds unlimited checks, the nearby schools that do ration places by distance and whether you are inside them, and the address check across every school at once.

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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)

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

Attainment 8 score
44.6
England 46.1
Grade 4 or above in English & maths GCSEs
61.5%
England 64.8%
Grade 5 or above in English & maths GCSEs
41%
England 45.4%
EBacc average point score
4.1
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 school44.6
Median of its 12 closest peers44
Hackney average50.7
England46.1

On attainment 8, this school is in line with 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
Notre Dame Catholic Girls' SchoolLondon · 3 miles awayRequires improvement42.8
Oasis Academy SilvertownLondon · 5 miles awayGood45.1
South Bank University AcademyLondon · 4 miles awayExpected standard41.5
Marylebone AcademyLondon · 5 miles awayGood48.6
Ark Putney AcademyLondon · 9 miles awayGood46.3
City of London Academy IslingtonLondon · under 1 mile awayOutstanding (2019)40.8
Phoenix AcademyLondon · 7 miles awayOutstanding49.6
South Chingford Foundation SchoolLondon · 5 miles awayNeeds attention32.8
Oasis Academy South BankLondon · 3 miles awayOutstanding54.6
St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England SchoolLondon · 3 miles awayGood52.7
Arts and Media School IslingtonLondon · 3 miles awayGood38.3
Moor Park High SchoolPreston · 189 miles awayNeeds attention39.3

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)
7.9%
England 6.5%
Pupils missing 10%+ of sessions (persistent absence)
23.7%
England 18.1%

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

Staffing

Pupils per qualified teacher
11.7
England 18.5

Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.

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£11,728
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
79%
Continuing in education
78%
Apprenticeship
0%
Employment
1%

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)
3/10more deprived than most of England
Overall deprivation (IMD)
6/10around the middle for 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 higher66.8%33.9%
Adults with no qualifications9.4%18.1%
In managerial or professional work57.9%33.2%
Households deprived in two or more ways12.2%18.1%
Residents in very good health63%48.5%
Homes owned by the occupier33%62.3%
Social housing28.7%17.1%
Privately rented37.9%20.5%
Detached houses0.2%22.9%
Flats97.2%22.2%
Homes with four or more bedrooms5.5%21.1%
Households with no car or van71%23.5%

Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01035642 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,568 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
£610,0001,149 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
Typical range
£465,000–£855,000the middle half of sales
England median
£300,000all sales over the same period
Detached (6)£2,040,000
Semi-detached (38)£1,950,000
Terraced (169)£1,488,000
Flat (936)£555,000

Homes around this school are among the dearest tenth of school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.

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

Child pedestrian casualties
1an urban school averages 2.0
Collisions at school-run times
24an urban school averages 5.8
All reported collisions
157an urban school averages 30.6
Of those, serious or fatal
30an 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