Mortimer Community College
Reading Road, South Shields, NE33 4UG
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Community school
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Mr Simon Hignett
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Constituency
- South Shields
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,156
- Pupils on roll
- 1,139
- URN
- 108727
- Local authority
- South Tyneside
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01914566511
About this school
Mortimer Community College is a community secondary school in South Shields. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 1,139 pupils on roll.
You can read Ofsted's latest judgement for the school below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Seeing a school for yourself shows what no page can, so arrange a visit before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted did not give an overall grade. Between September 2024 and September 2025 inspections graded each area of a school's work without a single overall judgement, ahead of the move to report cards. How Ofsted report cards work
- Quality of education
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 207 | 209 | 212 |
| Attainment 8 score | 40.8 | 36.6 | 41.9 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.51 -0.70 to -0.31 | -0.53 -0.73 to -0.33 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 29% | 23% | 35.4% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 50% | 44.5% | 63.7% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 22% | 22% | 42.5% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.8 |
Progress 8 is paused nationally for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 school years. Those pupils sat no key stage 2 tests during the Covid pandemic, so there is no starting point to measure progress from. A blank figure here is not missing school data.
Trends over time
How Mortimer Community College has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | South Tyneside average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 40.8 | 37.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 36.6 | 33.2 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 41.9 | 37.4 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 10% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 10.5% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 11.4% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1,074 |
| 2023/24 | 1,096 |
| 2024/25 | 1,111 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Mortimer Community College compares
Mortimer Community College ranked 7th of 8 secondary schools in South Tyneside for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 45% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 5% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 41.9 | 11.4% | 48.7% | 1,139 | — |
| St Wilfrid's RC College | 48.2 | 9.8% | 33% | 1,271 | 0.4 miles |
| Harton Academy | 42.6 | 10% | 35% | 1,599 | 0.8 miles |
| Boldon School | 37.1 | 12.5% | 53.1% | 1,043 | 2.3 miles |
| Norham High School | 42.7 | 8% | 63.2% | 498 | 2.5 miles |
| Jarrow School | 42.6 | 11.3% | 45.7% | 844 | 2.6 miles |
Results reflect each school's cohort as much as its teaching, and free school meals share is context, not a judgement. Small gaps between neighbouring schools are rarely meaningful on their own.
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 48.69%
- English as an additional language
- 8.6%
- Overall absence
- 11.42%
- Persistent absence
- 33.56%
Location
Nearby schools
-
St Wilfrid's RC College0.4 miles
Secondary · South Shields
-
Harton Academy0.8 miles
Secondary · South Shields
-
Boldon School2.3 miles
Secondary · Boldon Colliery
-
Norham High School2.5 miles
Secondary · North Shields
-
Jarrow School2.6 miles
Secondary · Jarrow
Other schools in South Shields
- Harton Academy Secondary
- St Wilfrid's RC College Secondary
- Ashley Academy Primary
- Biddick Hall Infants' School Primary
- Biddick Hall Junior School Primary
- Forest View Primary Primary
- Hadrian Primary School Primary
- Harton Primary School Primary
- Holy Trinity Church of England Academy (South Shields) Primary
- Laygate Community School Primary
- Lord Blyton Primary School Primary
- Marine Park Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Mortimer Community College teach?
- Mortimer Community College teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in South Shields.
- Who is the headteacher of Mortimer Community College?
- The headteacher of Mortimer Community College is Mr Simon Hignett, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Mortimer Community College last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Mortimer Community College, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How big is Mortimer Community College?
- Mortimer Community College has 1,139 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Mortimer Community College full?
- Mortimer Community College has capacity for 1,156 pupils and 1,139 on roll (99%), so it is close to full. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is Mortimer Community College a faith school?
- No. Mortimer Community College has no designated religious character.
- Is Mortimer Community College a selective school?
- No. Mortimer Community College is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- How have Mortimer Community College's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 40.8 in 2022/23 and 41.9 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Mortimer Community College rank locally?
- Mortimer Community College ranked 7th of 8 secondary schools in South Tyneside for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 45% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 5% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Mortimer Community College's absence rate?
- Mortimer Community College's overall absence rate is 11.4% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Mortimer Community College's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Mortimer Community College's key stage results are shown in the results section on this page, with the last three years so you can see the trend rather than a single year.
School details come from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Inspection outcomes come from Ofsted, and exam results from the Department for Education's school performance service. This page was last updated on 29 June 2026.