William Edwards School

Academy · ages 11–16 · no sixth form

Below average on 2 of the four headline measures — 11th of 13 for average grade in Thurrock.

Grays · Thurrock · one of 13 state secondaries

Summary

William Edwards School sits 11th of 13 state secondaries in Thurrock for average GCSE grade. 54.9% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 66% across Thurrock. 34.8% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Thurrock in art, sat by 15% of the year, and photography, sat by 15% of the year,, and furthest behind in English Language and French. Ofsted: Inspected in March 2026 under the current report card, which grades 7 areas separately and gives no overall word.

It is an academy of 984 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 22.4% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 14.2% are on SEN support with a further 3% holding an education, health and care plan. 42.1% were entered for the full EBacc, about the same as Thurrock, and 5.6% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 24% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, worse than the 22% across Thurrock, and 81.8% of its leavers went on to further education.

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

Inspection

Graded by area

Last inspected March 2026

Achievement: Needs attention
Attendance and behaviour: Expected standard
Curriculum and teaching: Needs attention
Inclusion: Expected standard
Leadership and management: Needs attention
Personal development: Expected standard
Safeguarding: Met

March 2026 Report card inspection Graded by area
November 2023 Full inspection Requires improvement

Ofsted’s current report card grades each area separately and gives no overall word.

Read the Ofsted report

Attendance

24% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 22% across Thurrock and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.

GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25

Attainment

55%

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

below average

Thurrock 66% · England 65%

35%

Strong pass in both grade 5+, a strong pass

below average

Thurrock 45% · England 45%

42.5

Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90

in line with average

Thurrock 45.2 · England 46.1

42%

Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects

in line with average

Thurrock 43% · England 41%

After Year 11

82% 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

this school Thurrock England at grade 4

Subject Share at grade 4 or above Since 2021/22

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.

Maths is the subject most of this year group sat. Maths 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

Stifford Clays Road
Stifford Clays
Grays
Essex
RM16 3NJ

01375 486000 williamedwards.org.uk

Headteacher: Mrs Lynne Sexton
Trust: South West Essex Community Education Trust Limited
Pupils: 984 of 1,250 places
Spare places: 13%
Free school meals: 22%
SEND: 14% on SEN support, 3% with an EHC plan
Separate sciences: 6% of the year
Progress 8: Not published · last -0.29 in 2023/24

Other schools in Thurrock

12 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.

School report by Tutorperch