State secondary schools in Sandwell
22 schools · West Midlands · 2024/25 Department for Education figures
Sandwell has 22 state secondaries, 14 of them with sixth forms. 80.8% of families got their first choice last year, about the national picture. Results run from 17.6% to 52% passing English and maths, a spread of 34 points, with a middle school at 37%, below England's 45.4%.
Of those Ofsted has graded, 1 rated Outstanding, 15 Good, 1 Requires improvement. 5 schools carry no overall grade at all — either inspected since Ofsted stopped issuing one in September 2024, or never inspected.
Sandwell against England
State-funded schools, 2024/25
Getting a place
2026/27 secondary admissions round, across Sandwell
80.8%
Got their first choiceof those who applied
England 84%
94.1%
Got one of their threefirst, second or third
0.2%
Got no offer at allfrom any preference
12%
Appeals upheld34 of 278 heard
These are figures for Sandwell as a whole. A popular school can be much harder to get into than the average suggests, and the criteria that decide it are set by each school's own admission authority rather than centrally. How applying works
How much the choice matters here
Across Sandwell's 19 schools, the share passing English and maths runs from 18% to 52%. That is a spread of 34 percentage points, narrower than most councils.
The typical council spans about 48 points. Where schools are close together the school a child gets matters less; where they are far apart it matters a great deal. The widest spreads are all selective areas, where grammar schools sit at one end and everything else at the other.
Sandwell schools, subject by subject
The share reaching grade 4 or above, among schools entering at least 20 pupils. Which pupils take a subject differs a lot between schools, so read this as what happened rather than as a ranking of teaching.
- 1 Sandwell Academy West Bromwich · 202 entries 78%
- 2 Q3 Academy Great Barr Birmingham · 216 entries 75%
- 3 Q3 Academy Langley Oldbury · 242 entries 74%
- 4 Wood Green Academy Wednesbury · 258 entries 72%
- 5 Bristnall Hall Academy Oldbury · 212 entries 69%
- 6 Perryfields Academy Oldbury · 198 entries 65%
- 7 St Michael's Church of England High School Rowley Regis · 224 entries 64%
- 8 Shireland Collegiate Academy Smethwick · 270 entries 63%
- 9 Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy Oldbury · 230 entries 63%
- 10 Ormiston Forge Academy Cradley Heath · 286 entries 63%
- 11 Holly Lodge High School College of Science Smethwick · 275 entries 62%
- 12 West Bromwich Collegiate Academy West Bromwich · 154 entries 62%
- 13 Wodensborough Ormiston Academy Wednesbury · 229 entries 61%
- 14 Oldbury Academy Oldbury · 284 entries 58%
- 15 Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School Wednesbury · 146 entries 58%
- 16 George Salter Academy West Bromwich · 256 entries 55%
- 17 The Phoenix Collegiate West Bromwich · 318 entries 51%
- 18 Q3 Academy Tipton Tipton · 283 entries 43%
- 19 Gospel Oak School Tipton · 213 entries 39%
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Every school in Sandwell
Schools in neighbouring authorities are not in this list, because admissions run per authority. See bordering areas.
5 of 22 have no spare places. Sort the list, or narrow it first.
- Bristnall Hall Academy Oldbury · Outstanding.
- Eng & maths
- 38%
- Attainment 8
- 48.1
- Absence
- 19%
- George Salter Academy West Bromwich · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 31%
- Attainment 8
- 39.6
- Absence
- 25%
- Gospel Oak School Tipton · Inspected, after Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall grade.
- Eng & maths
- 18%
- Attainment 8
- 32.8
- Absence
- 26%
- Holly Lodge High School College of Science Smethwick · Good. · no spare places
- Eng & maths
- 35%
- Attainment 8
- 42.1
- Absence
- 22%
- Oldbury Academy Oldbury · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 31%
- Attainment 8
- 37.4
- Absence
- 26%
- Ormiston Forge Academy Cradley Heath · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 31%
- Attainment 8
- 39.7
- Absence
- 29%
- Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy Oldbury · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 37%
- Attainment 8
- 42.3
- Absence
- 26%
- Perryfields Academy Oldbury · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 39%
- Attainment 8
- 43.8
- Absence
- 23%
- Q3 Academy Great Barr Birmingham · Good. · no spare places
- Eng & maths
- 45%
- Attainment 8
- 44.2
- Absence
- 20%
- Q3 Academy Langley Oldbury · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 50%
- Attainment 8
- 51.8
- Absence
- 11%
- Q3 Academy Tipton Tipton · Inspected, after Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall grade.
- Eng & maths
- 18%
- Attainment 8
- 36.4
- Absence
- 27%
- Sandwell Academy West Bromwich · Good. · no spare places
- Eng & maths
- 52%
- Attainment 8
- 49.1
- Absence
- 17%
- Shireland Biomedical Utc West Bromwich · Requires improvement.
- Eng & maths
- —
- Attainment 8
- —
- Absence
- 22%
- Shireland CBSO Academy West Bromwich · No inspection outcome published.
- Eng & maths
- —
- Attainment 8
- —
- Absence
- 16%
- Shireland Collegiate Academy Smethwick · Inspected, after Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall grade. · no spare places
- Eng & maths
- 37%
- Attainment 8
- 44.5
- Absence
- 17%
- St Michael's Church of England High School Rowley Regis · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 39%
- Attainment 8
- 48.9
- Absence
- 22%
- Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School Wednesbury · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 35%
- Attainment 8
- 41.4
- Absence
- 33%
- The Phoenix Collegiate West Bromwich · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 25%
- Attainment 8
- 39.8
- Absence
- 25%
- West Bromwich Collegiate Academy West Bromwich · Good. · no spare places
- Eng & maths
- 37%
- Attainment 8
- 45.3
- Absence
- 17%
- Windsor Olympus Academy Birmingham · No inspection outcome published.
- Eng & maths
- —
- Attainment 8
- —
- Absence
- 16%
- Wodensborough Ormiston Academy Wednesbury · Inspected under the current report card, which gives no overall grade.
- Eng & maths
- 29%
- Attainment 8
- 38.6
- Absence
- 30%
- Wood Green Academy Wednesbury · Good.
- Eng & maths
- 38%
- Attainment 8
- 44.7
- Absence
- 25%
Pick up to 4 schools to see them side by side in the comparison tool, subject by subject.
Sixth form · Key stage 5·2024/25
A levels in Sandwell
12 of Sandwell's 14 sixth forms publish A level results. Ranked on the share reaching AAB or better in at least two of the subjects universities name, which is the measure the steepest entry requirements are written in.
- Sandwell Academy West Bromwich C+ 15%
- Shireland Biomedical Utc West Bromwich C- 13%
- Wood Green Academy Wednesbury C+ 12%
- George Salter Academy West Bromwich C 11%
- Holly Lodge High School College of Science Smethwick C+ 11%
- Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School Wednesbury C- 11%
- The Phoenix Collegiate West Bromwich C 8%
- Shireland Collegiate Academy Smethwick C 5%
- Q3 Academy Great Barr Birmingham C- 4%
- Ormiston Forge Academy Cradley Heath C- 3%
- Gospel Oak School Tipton D+ 0%
- Q3 Academy Tipton Tipton C 0%
A level results only. A sixth form running mostly BTECs and other applied courses will show a dash here and can still be the right one — those are graded on their own scale, where a distinction and an A grade carry the same points and mean different things.
Bordering Sandwell
Near a boundary, schools on both sides are usually in reach. Whether a child can apply is set by each school's admission criteria, not by the border.
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.
- 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.
- First preference
- The share of families who were offered the school they ranked first on their application, on national offer day in March. This figure is calculated across the relevant schools or admissions authority, so a high overall figure does not necessarily mean that every individual school is easy to get into.
- 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.
- Average A-level grade
- The average grade achieved across students' A-level entries. This is different from measures such as the proportion achieving AAB or better in two or more facilitating subjects, which are sometimes used to indicate higher attainment and university-entry performance.