The Academy at Shotton Hall
Academy · ages 11–16 · no sixth form
Above average on every headline measure — 5th of 30 for average grade in County Durham.
Peterlee · County Durham · one of 30 state secondaries
Summary
The Academy at Shotton Hall sits 5th of 30 state secondaries in County Durham for average GCSE grade. 77.3% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 61.4% across County Durham. 52.6% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of County Durham in combined science and English Literature, and furthest behind in computer science, sat by 6% of the year. Ofsted: Outstanding in July 2024.
It is an academy of 1,202 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 34.8% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 11.3% are on SEN support with a further 0.5% holding an education, health and care plan. 46.9% were entered for the full EBacc, more than the 32.5% entered across County Durham, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 15.5% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 18.2% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, better than the 23.9% across County Durham, and 82.8% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against County Durham, 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·County Durham
Inspection
Outstanding
Inspected July 2024
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Outstanding
- Leadership and management
- Outstanding
- Personal development
- Outstanding
- Quality of education
- Outstanding
- July 2024 Full inspection Outstanding
That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.
Attendance
18% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 24% across County Durham and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
77%
Passed English & maths grade 4+, an old grade C
well above average
County Durham 61% · England 65%
47%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
above average
County Durham 33% · England 41%
After Year 11
83% stayed in education, 5% 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
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.
- 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
Passfield Way
Peterlee
County Durham
SR8 1AU
- Executive Principal
- Alexandra Hook
- Trust
- North East Learning Trust
- Pupils
- 1,202 of 1,261 places
- Spare places
- 8%
- Free school meals
- 35%
- SEND
- 11% on SEN support, 1% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 16% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last +0.58 in 2023/24
Other schools in County Durham
29 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- St Bede's Catholic School and Byron Sixth Form College 0.9 km
- Dene Academy 2.4 km
- Wellfield School 2.5 km
- Easington Academy 3.5 km
- Seaham High School 10.1 km
- Belmont Community School 11.8 km
- Sedgefield Community College 11.8 km
- St Leonard's Catholic School, Durham 15.5 km
- Framwellgate School Durham 15.8 km
- Durham Johnston Comprehensive School 16 km
- Ferryhill School 16 km
- Whitworth Park Academy 17.8 km
- Park View School 18.2 km
- Durham Academy 18.6 km
- Hermitage Academy 19.1 km
- Woodham Academy 19.2 km
- Greenfield Academy 21.5 km
- Parkside Academy 22.2 km
- UTC South Durham 22.4 km
- King James I Academy Bishop Auckland 22.7 km
- Bishop Barrington Academy 24.2 km
- St John's Catholic School & Sixth Form College 24.4 km
- North Durham Academy 25.5 km
- St Bede's Catholic School and Sixth Form College, Lanchester 26.7 km
- Tanfield School 26.7 km
- Consett Academy 32.8 km
- Wolsingham School 34.8 km
- Staindrop Academy 35.2 km
- Teesdale School and Sixth Form 42.3 km