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Bridgwater College Academy

Academy · ages 3–16 · no sixth form

Above average on 1 of the four headline measures, below on 3 — 29th of 29 for average grade in Somerset.

Bridgwater · Somerset · one of 29 state secondaries

How we read the data

Summary

Bridgwater College Academy sits 29th of 29 state secondaries in Somerset for average GCSE grade. 36.4% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 61.3% across Somerset. 16% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Somerset in photography, sat by 39% of the year,, and furthest behind in Spanish and combined science. Ofsted: Inspected in March 2026 under the current report card, which grades 8 areas separately and gives no overall word.

It is an academy of 1,561 pupils, taking ages 3 to 16. 36.1% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 17.1% are on SEN support with a further 7.5% holding an education, health and care plan. 79.7% were entered for the full EBacc, more than the 31.1% entered across Somerset, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 13.4% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 25% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, about the same as Somerset, and 82.8% of its leavers went on to further education.

Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Somerset, and count as ahead or behind only where the gap is wider than the year-to-year swing that entry group would produce.

The school·Somerset

Inspection

Placed in special measures

Graded by area

Last inspected March 2026

Achievement
Urgent improvement
Attendance and behaviour
Urgent improvement
Curriculum and teaching
Urgent improvement
Early years
Needs attention
Inclusion
Urgent improvement
Leadership and management
Urgent improvement
Personal development
Needs attention
Safeguarding
Met
  • March 2026 Report card inspection Graded by area
  • May 2023 Full inspection Requires improvement
  • February 2020 Ungraded inspection School remains Good (Concerns)

An ungraded inspection checks whether the existing grade still holds rather than replacing it.

Ofsted’s current report card grades each area separately and gives no overall word.

Read the Ofsted report

Attendance

25% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 24% across Somerset and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.

GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25

Attainment

36%

Passed English & maths grade 4+, an old grade C

well below average

Somerset 61% · England 65%

16%

Strong pass in both grade 5+, a strong pass

well below average

Somerset 40% · England 45%

31.9

Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90

below average

Somerset 43.5 · England 46.1

80%

Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects

well above average

Somerset 31% · England 41%

After Year 11

83% stayed in education, 1% started an apprenticeship (2022/23 leavers)

GCSE results by subject

2024/25 · share reaching grade 4 or above · a standard pass, the old grade C

this school Somerset England

Every bar is on the same 0–100% scale, so subjects can be read against each other as well as against the county and England. A dash means the figure does not exist rather than being zero. The county and England lines cover state-funded schools only, the same schools you can browse here, because independent schools sit outside the Department for Education's subject release and outside this site.

Compare these subjects against another school, side by side.

English Language is the subject most of this year group sat. English Language tutors on Tutorperch.

Parent guides

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What these mean

Attainment 8
The average pupil's total score across eight GCSE-equivalent subjects, with English and maths counting double. It is scored out of 90. A score of 50 is roughly equivalent to achieving a grade 5 across eight subjects.
Grades 4 and 5
GCSEs are graded from 9 down to 1. Grade 4 is a standard pass and broadly corresponds to the old grade C; grade 5 is what the government calls a strong pass. Grade 7 is broadly equivalent to an old grade A.
The EBacc
A combination of subjects rather than a qualification in its own right: English, Maths, the Sciences, a Language, and History or Geography. The figure shows the share of pupils entered for all the EBacc subject areas, so it gives an indication of how widely a school enters pupils for this particular combination of subjects.
Progress 8
A measure of how much progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of GCSE, rather than simply what grades they achieve. It takes pupils' prior attainment into account, making it useful for comparing schools with different intakes. Progress 8 is not published for 2024/25 because the pupils concerned did not have Key Stage 2 tests that can be used as the normal starting point.
Percentage points
The gap between two percentages. A subject going from 30% to 36% has risen six percentage points, though it has risen by a fifth. We write "pp" to keep the two apart.
Why some subjects say nothing
A year group is small. Where a gap is no bigger than the swing a different intake would produce, we say the subjects are level rather than dressing chance as a finding. Two kinds of subject carry no share at all: a vocational award has no 9-to-1 grade to report, and some qualifications are not published on the 9-to-1 scale for a given year group, most often community languages sat outside the school's own timetable.
Persistent absence
The share of pupils who miss at least 10% of their possible sessions during the school year. This includes both authorised and unauthorised absence, so illness and other authorised reasons are included. Persistent absence has remained substantially higher than its pre-pandemic level.
Spare places
The amount of available capacity a school has compared with the number of pupils on roll. This is different from oversubscription: spare places measure whether a school has capacity, whereas oversubscription describes demand for places exceeding the number available. A school with no spare places may be popular, but a small school can also be full without receiving a large number of applications.

School details

Parkway
Bridgwater
Somerset
TA6 4QY

01278 727327 bridgwatercollegeacademy.org
Head Teacher
Headteacher Laura Campbell/ Sarah Evans
Trust
Bridgwater & Taunton College Trust
Pupils
1,561 of 1,890 places
Spare places
19%
Free school meals
36%
SEND
17% on SEN support, 8% with an EHC plan
Separate sciences
13% of the year
Progress 8
Not published · last -0.8 in 2023/24

Other schools in Somerset

28 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.

Tutorperch School report by Tutorperch
Covers state-funded schools in England; independent schools are not included. The four figures at the top compare against the Department for Education's national release, which counts special schools and alternative provision as well, so it sits slightly below the average of the schools listed on this site. Subject comparisons are pooled from those schools directly.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Key stage 4 performance, school characteristics, absence and destinations: Department for Education, 2024/25. Inspection outcomes: Ofsted. Persistent absence comparators are the median secondary school.