Leigh Academy Snowfields
Special / other · Maidstone · ME14 5GA
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.
Inspected 27 June 2023
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
355 pupils · 90% of 396 capacity
- School type
- Free schools special
- Age range
- 11–18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 33.3% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 0% of pupils
- SEN support
- 0% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 100% of pupils
- Sixth form
- Yes
- URN
- 147870
GCSE results (2024/2025)
45 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. National averages are not shown here. The England figures are dominated by mainstream schools, and pupils at a special school are working towards outcomes those measures were not designed to capture, so the comparison would mislead more than it tells you.
Special educational needs
Needs this school records that it caters for, in the order it lists them.
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Provision type: SEN unit.
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 · 18% 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.
The area around the school
- Child poverty (IDACI)
- 9/10among the least deprived fifth of England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 9/10among the least deprived fifth 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 2021 | This area | England |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with a degree or higher | 34.7% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 11.5% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 45.3% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 8.7% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 52.2% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 86.6% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 1.9% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 11.5% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 52% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 8.5% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 50.5% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 5.3% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01024336 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,550 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
- £450,000145 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £365,000–£590,000the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are dearer than three quarters 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
- 0an urban school averages 2.0
- Collisions at school-run times
- 1an urban school averages 5.8
- All reported collisions
- 5an urban school averages 30.6
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 1an 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.