SchoolFacts.uk

The Deanery CofE Academy

Secondary · Swindon · SN1 7DA

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Inadequate

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.

Ofsted placed this school in a statutory category of concern, special measures, at the inspection of 12 September 2023. It stands until a later inspection lifts it.

Quality of education: InadequateBehaviour & attitudes: Requires improvementPersonal development: InadequateLeadership & management: InadequateSafeguarding effective: Yes

Inspected 12 September 2023

Read the Ofsted report ↗

At a glance

670 pupils · 64% of 1,050 capacity

School type
Free schools
Age range
11–18
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Anglican/Church of England
Free school meals
25.2% of pupils
English as additional language
32.8% of pupils
SEN support
11.3% of pupils
EHC plan
2.7% of pupils
Website
www.dcea.org.uk
URN
151305

Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026

0.44 first-choice applications per place

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

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)

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

Attainment 8 score
46.6
England 46.1
Grade 4 or above in English & maths GCSEs
71.4%
England 64.8%
Grade 5 or above in English & maths GCSEs
50.3%
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 school46.6
Median of its 12 closest peers45.9
Swindon average44.6
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
King Solomon High SchoolIlford · 82 miles awayRequires improvement46.8
Houstone SchoolDunstable · 61 miles awayGood46.1
The De Montfort SchoolEvesham · 38 miles awayGood38.4
The Gatwick SchoolCrawley · 76 miles awayGood39.7
St Thomas More Catholic SchoolBedford · 71 miles awayGood47
Bishop Milner Catholic CollegeDudley · 68 miles awayGood45.9
St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive SchoolLondon · 81 miles awayGood60.6
Newmarket AcademyNewmarket · 106 miles awayGood45.9
The Catholic High School, ChesterChester · 122 miles awayExpected standard46.7
Bolder AcademyIsleworth · 64 miles awayGood45.6
Giles AcademyBoston · 130 miles awayGood38.6
St Thomas Becket Catholic SchoolNorthampton · 64 miles awayGood38.7

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.

Special educational needs

Needs this school records that it caters for, in the order it lists them.

Provision type: SEN unit.

SEN unit
12 of 60 places taken places may be available

Unit places come from the school census and describe the position when it was taken, not today. Confirm with the local authority before relying on them.

Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)

Sessions missed (overall absence)
8%
England 6.5%
Pupils missing 10%+ of sessions (persistent absence)
22%
England 18.1%

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

Staffing

Pupils per qualified teacher
14.3
England 18.5

Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.

Teacher retention (2024/25)

87% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 6% moved to another state school · 7% 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£8,849
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.

The area around the school

Child poverty (IDACI)
5/10around the middle for England
Overall deprivation (IMD)
8/10less 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 higher33.5%33.9%
Adults with no qualifications15.1%18.1%
In managerial or professional work40.3%33.2%
Households deprived in two or more ways13.3%18.1%
Residents in very good health49.4%48.5%
Homes owned by the occupier81.4%62.3%
Social housing10%17.1%
Privately rented8.3%20.5%
Detached houses34.7%22.9%
Flats9.3%22.2%
Homes with four or more bedrooms36.4%21.1%
Households with no car or van11.1%23.5%

Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01015585 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,616 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
£352,500362 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
Typical range
£237,000–£403,500the middle half of sales
England median
£300,000all sales over the same period
Detached (81)£450,000
Semi-detached (152)£358,000
Terraced (26)£274,000
Flat (103)£218,000

Homes around this school are dearer than most 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
7an 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.

Nearby schools