Lift Unity City
Ormesby Road, Middlesbrough, TS3 8RE
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- LIFT SCHOOLS
- Principal
- Mrs Jill Gray
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Religious ethos
- None
- Sponsor
- Lift Schools
- SEN provision
- MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty
- Constituency
- Middlesbrough and Thornaby East
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,050
- Pupils on roll
- 1,033
- URN
- 133768
- Local authority
- Middlesbrough
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01642326262
About this school
Lift Unity City is a secondary academy in Middlesbrough. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 1,033 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. Numbers and a report only go so far, so visit in person before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted no longer gives schools a single overall grade. Each area of the school's work is graded on a five-point scale, and safeguarding is judged separately.
- Inclusion
- Expected standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Needs attention
- Achievement
- Needs attention
- Attendance and behaviour
- Expected standard
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Expected standard
- Leadership and governance
- Expected standard
- Safeguarding
- Met
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 149 | 172 | 155 |
| Attainment 8 score | 35.7 | 31.8 | 34.2 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.57 -0.81 to -0.32 | -0.87 -1.11 to -0.63 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 13% | 18% | 20.6% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 43% | 38.4% | 41.3% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 22% | 22.1% | 24.5% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 2.6 | 2.5 | 2.8 |
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 Lift Unity City has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Middlesbrough average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 35.7 | 26.7 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 31.8 | 28.3 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 34.2 | 28.5 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 16.6% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 14.6% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 13.8% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 918 |
| 2023/24 | 996 |
| 2024/25 | 1,027 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Lift Unity City compares
Lift Unity City ranked 7th of 8 secondary schools in Middlesbrough for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 26% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 2% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 34.2 | 13.8% | 72.5% | 1,033 | — |
| Outwood Academy Ormesby | 33.1 | 15.3% | 65% | 698 | 0.9 miles |
| Trinity Catholic College | 42.6 | 10.1% | 45.1% | 1,270 | 1.5 miles |
| Outwood Academy Normanby | 35.4 | 12.2% | 53.2% | 787 | 1.6 miles |
| St Peter's Catholic College | 34.3 | 9% | 55.2% | 572 | 1.7 miles |
| Outwood Academy Riverside | 43.2 | 7.5% | 64.5% | 745 | 1.7 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.
Inspection history
-
Graded inspection report21 April 2026
- 10 May 2022
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 72.54%
- English as an additional language
- 11.8%
- Overall absence
- 13.84%
- Persistent absence
- 42.17%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Outwood Academy Ormesby0.9 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
-
Trinity Catholic College1.5 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
-
Outwood Academy Normanby1.6 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
-
St Peter's Catholic College1.7 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
-
Outwood Academy Riverside1.7 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
Other schools in Middlesbrough
Lift Unity City ranks 10th of the 11 ranked secondary schools in Middlesbrough.
- Acklam Grange School Secondary
- Macmillan Academy Secondary
- Nunthorpe School & Sixth Form Secondary
- Outwood Academy Acklam Secondary
- Outwood Academy Normanby Secondary
- Outwood Academy Ormesby Secondary
- Outwood Academy Riverside Secondary
- St Peter's Catholic College Secondary
- The King's Academy Secondary
- Trinity Catholic College Secondary
- Abingdon Primary School Primary
- Acklam Whin Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Lift Unity City teach?
- Lift Unity City teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Middlesbrough.
- Who is the principal of Lift Unity City?
- The principal of Lift Unity City is Mrs Jill Gray, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Lift Unity City last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Lift Unity City, 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 Lift Unity City?
- Lift Unity City has 1,033 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Lift Unity City full?
- Lift Unity City has capacity for 1,050 pupils and 1,033 on roll (98%), 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 Lift Unity City a faith school?
- No. Lift Unity City has no designated religious character.
- Is Lift Unity City a selective school?
- No. Lift Unity City is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Lift Unity City?
- Lift Unity City is part of LIFT SCHOOLS. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- What SEN provision does Lift Unity City have?
- The schools register lists Lift Unity City's special educational needs provision as: MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Lift Unity City's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 35.7 in 2022/23 and 34.2 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Lift Unity City rank locally?
- Lift Unity City ranked 7th of 8 secondary schools in Middlesbrough for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 26% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 2% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Lift Unity City's absence rate?
- Lift Unity City's overall absence rate is 13.8% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Lift Unity City's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Lift Unity City'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 15 July 2026.