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Fir Vale Academy

Academy · ages 11–16 · no sixth form

Below average on every headline measure — 29th of 29 for average grade in Sheffield.

Sheffield · Sheffield · one of 29 state secondaries

How we read the data

Summary

Fir Vale Academy sits 29th of 29 state secondaries in Sheffield for average GCSE grade. 33.3% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 60.5% across Sheffield. 19% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Sheffield in statistics, sat by 6% of the year,, and furthest behind in maths and English Literature. Ofsted: Inspected in February 2025, after Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall grade.

It is an academy of 931 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 72.4% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 20.6% are on SEN support with a further 1.6% holding an education, health and care plan. 7.4% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 38.2% entered across Sheffield, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push. 63.9% of its leavers went on to further education.

Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Sheffield, 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·Sheffield

Inspection

Graded by area

Inspected February 2025

Behaviour and attitudes
Requires improvement
Leadership and management
Requires improvement
Personal development
Good
Quality of education
Requires improvement
  • February 2025 Full inspection

Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall grade in September 2024.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25

Fir Vale Academy converted to an academy in July 2025 and was given a new reference number. The Department for Education files results against the record a school held when its pupils sat their exams, so these are published under its previous one, Fir Vale School.

Attainment

33%

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

well below average

Sheffield 61% · England 65%

19%

Strong pass in both grade 5+, a strong pass

well below average

Sheffield 42% · England 45%

25.7

Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90

well below average

Sheffield 43.2 · England 46.1

7%

Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects

well below average

Sheffield 38% · England 41%

After Year 11

64% 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 Sheffield 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.

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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.

School details

Owler Lane
Sheffield
South Yorkshire
S4 8GB

01142 439391 firvale.com
Head
Danny Bullock
Trust
United Learning Trust
Pupils
931
Free school meals
72%
SEND
21% on SEN support, 2% with an EHC plan
Progress 8
Not published · last -1.09 in 2023/24

Other schools in Sheffield

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.