The Maplesden Noakes School
Academy · ages 11–18 · with a sixth form
Below average on 2 of the four headline measures — 63rd of 100 for average grade in Kent.
Maidstone · Kent · one of 104 state secondaries
Summary
The Maplesden Noakes School sits 63rd of 100 state secondaries in Kent for average GCSE grade. 58.2% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 65.1% across Kent. 28.4% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Kent in food technology, sat by 10% of the year,, and furthest behind in maths and computer science, sat by 16% of the year. Ofsted: Good in May 2024.
It is an academy of 1,418 pupils, taking ages 11 to 18 and running its own sixth form. 26.6% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 10.8% are on SEN support with a further 3.1% holding an education, health and care plan. 10.3% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 46.9% entered across Kent, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push. 20.4% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, better than the 22.9% across Kent, and 85.2% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Kent, 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·Kent
Inspection
Good
Inspected May 2024
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Quality of education
- Good
- May 2024 Full inspection Good
That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.
Attendance
20% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 23% across Kent and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
After Year 11
85% stayed in education, 4% 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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Sixth form · Key stage 5·2024/25
Sixth form
2024/25 · 117 A level students
Ofsted rated sixth-form provision Good at the last inspection
C-
Average A level resultper entry, DfE grade
below average
Kent C- · England C+
C-
Best three A levelsthe grade a typical offer asks for
0%
AAB or betterat least two in facilitating subjects
below average
Kent 11.5% · England 12.8%
96%
Stayed the coursefinished what they started
in line with average
Kent 96.9% · England 95.7%
Applied general qualifications: average result Merit, 94 students, 88.2% stayed the course. These are BTECs and similar, graded pass to distinction* rather than A* to E, so the two cannot be compared directly.
A level results by subject
2024/25 · share reaching B or above
After sixth form
Of the 117 students who finished, 35% went on to higher education, 6.8% to an apprenticeship, and 46.2% into work. 89.7% were in a sustained destination of some kind six months later.
Destinations are for 2022/23 leavers, the most recent DfE has published. The results above are 2024/25.
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.
- Grades not published
- Where a subject was sat by only a few students, the Department for Education publishes how many entered and withholds the grades, so that individual students cannot be identified from the figures. The subject is shown, because the school does teach it, but there is nothing to compare. Most A level groups are small enough for this to apply somewhere on a page.
- 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.
School details
Buckland Road
Maidstone
Kent
ME16 0TJ
- Headteacher
- Mr Tom Newcombe
- Trust
- The Maplesden Noakes School
- Pupils
- 1,418 of 1,500 places
- Spare places
- 6%
- Free school meals
- 27%
- SEND
- 11% on SEN support, 3% with an EHC plan
- Progress 8
- Not published · last -0.55 in 2023/24
Other schools in Kent
103 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- Maidstone Grammar School for Girls 0.2 km
- St Simon Stock Catholic School 1.2 km
- St Augustine Academy 1.3 km
- Oakwood Park Grammar School 1.4 km
- Invicta Grammar School 2 km
- Maidstone Grammar School 2.2 km
- Valley Park School 2.2 km
- School of Science and Technology Maidstone 2.6 km
- New Line Learning Academy 3.8 km
- Aylesford School 3.8 km
- The Malling School 5.4 km
- Cornwallis Academy 5.5 km
- The Holmesdale School 7 km
- Wrotham School 14.1 km
- Hadlow Rural Community School 14.1 km
- Meopham School 14.4 km
- The Lenham School 14.7 km
- Leigh Academy Mascalls 14.9 km
- Westlands School 15.6 km
- Fulston Manor School 16.8 km
- Highsted Grammar School 16.9 km
- Borden Grammar School 16.9 km
- Leigh Academy Hugh Christie 17.5 km
- Thamesview School 17.7 km
- The Sittingbourne School 18.1 km
- Hillview School for Girls 18.8 km
- Leigh Academy Longfield 19.1 km
- St John's Catholic Comprehensive 19.2 km
- Weald of Kent Grammar School 19.2 km
- Saint George's Church of England School 19.4 km
- Tonbridge Grammar School 19.5 km
- Gravesend Grammar School 19.5 km
- The Judd School 19.9 km
- Leigh Academy Tonbridge 20.2 km
- Northfleet School for Girls 20.3 km
- Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend 20.3 km
- Northfleet Technology College 20.5 km
- Cranbrook School 20.5 km
- Trinity School 21 km
- Skinners' Kent Academy 21.7 km
- Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys 22.5 km
- Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet 22.6 km
- St Gregory's Catholic School 22.6 km
- Knole Academy 22.7 km
- Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School 23.1 km
- The Skinners' School 23.1 km
- Alkerden Church of England Academy 23.1 km
- Bennett Memorial Diocesan School 23.8 km
- Leigh Academy Minster 24.6 km
- EKC Sheppey Secondary 25.5 km
- Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy 25.8 km
- Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre 26 km
- Stone Lodge School 26 km
- The Abbey School 26.3 km
- Orchards Academy 26.9 km
- Chilmington Green School 27.1 km
- Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School 27.2 km
- Wilmington Grammar School for Boys 27.4 km
- Leigh Academy Wilmington 27.5 km
- Wilmington Grammar School for Girls 27.6 km
- Dartford Science & Technology College 27.8 km
- Dartford Grammar School for Girls 27.9 km
- Dartford Grammar School 28 km
- Leigh UTC Dartford 28.2 km
- Highworth Grammar School 28.4 km
- Towers School and Sixth Form Centre 28.6 km
- The John Wallis Church of England Academy 29.5 km
- The North School 30.3 km
- The Norton Knatchbull School 30.4 km
- Wye School 31.8 km
- The Whitstable School 37.5 km
- The Canterbury Academy 38.5 km
- The Archbishop's School 39.3 km
- Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys 40 km
- Barton Court Grammar School 40.4 km
- Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School 40.8 km
- Barton Manor School 41 km
- St Anselm's Catholic School, Canterbury 41.1 km
- Herne Bay High School 42.8 km
- Orion Spires 44.5 km
- Brockhill Park Performing Arts College 44.6 km
- The Marsh Academy 44.7 km
- Turner Free School 49.3 km
- The Harvey Grammar School 50 km
- The Folkestone School for Girls 50.1 km
- Folkestone Academy 50.4 km
- Dover Grammar School for Boys 56.9 km
- Astor Secondary School 56.9 km
- Dover Christ Church Academy 56.9 km
- Sandwich Technology School 57.5 km
- King Ethelbert School 57.5 km
- Ursuline College 57.8 km
- Dover Grammar School for Girls 57.9 km
- St Edmund's Catholic School 57.9 km
- Sir Roger Manwood's School 58.1 km
- Duke of York's Royal Military School 58.8 km
- Hartsdown Academy 60.7 km
- The Royal Harbour Academy 61.8 km
- Goodwin Academy 61.9 km
- St George's Church of England Foundation School 63.1 km
- Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School 63.3 km
- Dane Court Grammar School 63.8 km
- The Charles Dickens School 64 km