The Pingle Academy
Academy · ages 11–18 · with a sixth form
Below average on 1 of the four headline measures — 41st of 45 for average grade in Derbyshire.
Swadlincote · Derbyshire · one of 45 state secondaries
Summary
The Pingle Academy sits 41st of 45 state secondaries in Derbyshire for average GCSE grade. 58.5% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 65.1% across Derbyshire. 37.1% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Derbyshire in physics, sat by 14% of the year, and chemistry, sat by 14% of the year,, and furthest behind in combined science and English Language. Ofsted: Inspected in February 2026 under the current report card, which grades 8 areas separately and gives no overall word.
It is an academy of 1,363 pupils, taking ages 11 to 18 and running its own sixth form. 35.4% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 24.1% are on SEN support with a further 11.2% holding an education, health and care plan. 8.9% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 29.8% entered across Derbyshire, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 13.8% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 21.7% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, about the same as Derbyshire, and 82.6% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Derbyshire, 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·Derbyshire
Inspection
Graded by area
Last inspected February 2026
- Achievement
- Needs attention
- Attendance and behaviour
- Needs attention
- Curriculum and teaching
- Needs attention
- Inclusion
- Needs attention
- Leadership and management
- Needs attention
- Personal development
- Expected standard
- Safeguarding
- Met
- February 2026 Report card inspection Graded by area
- October 2021 Full inspection Good
Ofsted’s current report card grades each area separately and gives no overall word.
Attendance
22% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 22% across Derbyshire and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
59%
Passed English & maths grade 4+, an old grade C
in line with average
Derbyshire 65% · England 65%
39.2
Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90
in line with average
Derbyshire 45 · England 46.1
9%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
well below average
Derbyshire 30% · England 41%
After Year 11
83% stayed in education, 8% 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 · 104 A level students
Ofsted rated sixth-form provision Needs attention at the last inspection
C-
Average A level resultper entry, DfE grade
below average
Derbyshire C+ · England C+
5%
AAB or betterat least two in facilitating subjects
below average
Derbyshire 11.8% · England 12.8%
89%
Stayed the coursefinished what they started
in line with average
Derbyshire 93.2% · England 95.7%
Applied general qualifications: average result Distinction-, 30 students, 66.7% 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 8 students who finished, , 25% to an apprenticeship, and 25% into work. 50% 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
Coronation Street
Swadlincote
Derbyshire
DE11 0QA
- Acting Headteacher
- Mrs Michelle Oliphant
- Trust
- Affinity Learning Partnership
- Pupils
- 1,363 of 1,440 places
- Spare places
- 5%
- Free school meals
- 35%
- SEND
- 24% on SEN support, 11% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 14% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last -0.11 in 2023/24
Other schools in Derbyshire
44 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
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- Granville Academy 1.9 km
- John Port Spencer Academy 12.1 km
- The Long Eaton School 22.6 km
- Wilsthorpe School 23.1 km
- The Ecclesbourne School 23.6 km
- Friesland School 23.7 km
- Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy 26.1 km
- Kirk Hallam Community Academy 26.3 km
- Ormiston Ilkeston Enterprise Academy 27.3 km
- John Flamsteed Community School 28.2 km
- Belper School and Sixth Form Centre 28.6 km
- Heanor Gate Spencer Academy 29 km
- Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School 29.3 km
- Aldercar High School 31.3 km
- The Ripley Academy 31.9 km
- Anthony Gell School 33.4 km
- Swanwick Hall School 34.7 km
- David Nieper Academy 37.2 km
- Frederick Gent School 39.1 km
- Highfields School 41 km
- Tibshelf Community School 42.7 km
- Tupton Hall School 46.1 km
- Lady Manners School 48.2 km
- Outwood Academy Hasland Hall 50.1 km
- Brookfield Community School 50.9 km
- Parkside Community School 51 km
- Shirebrook Academy 53.1 km
- St Mary's Catholic High School, A Catholic Voluntary Academy 53.4 km
- Outwood Academy Newbold 53.4 km
- The Bolsover School 53.5 km
- Springwell Community College 54.9 km
- Whittington Green School 55.9 km
- Netherthorpe School 56.4 km
- Buxton Community School 57.7 km
- Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School 58.6 km
- St Thomas More Catholic Voluntary Academy 58.7 km
- Heritage High School 59 km
- Eckington School 60.2 km
- Hope Valley College 64.5 km
- Chapel-en-le-Frith High School 64.7 km
- New Mills School 71.5 km
- St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy 78.3 km
- Glossopdale School and Sixth Form 80.1 km